Jacques Carolan — The Mission to Get Breakthrough Brain Treatments to Everyone

Episode 3 of my new podcast features Dr. Jacques Carolan, a founding Program Director at ARIA, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. He directs two neurotech programs aimed at one of the most important opportunity spaces: developing tools and systems to interface, at scale, with the human brain.

One program is built on the idea that brain disorders are circuit problems, and funds tools to target those circuits with molecular precision across the whole brain. The other aims to deliver high-performance neurotech to the brain non-invasively or at most in a 30-minute outpatient procedure.

We dig into the engineering and biology behind both programs, potential scaling unlocks for the field, how ARIA programs drive breakthroughs, Jacques background, the role of media in shaping the future, and much more. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Other links to this episode and references below.

Topics covered:

• 00:00:00 Introduction

• 00:01:22 Why 20 years of neurotech breakthroughs haven’t reached patients

• 00:04:08 The two variables that determine whether any medical technology gets adopted

• 00:09:17 Brain disorders cost the UK £100B/year and we’re barely treating them

• 00:16:15 Using stem cells and gene therapy to build better brain interfaces

• 00:21:40 Self-regulating gene therapy that helps the brain quiet its own seizures

• 00:24:03 The non-technical reasons transformative neurotech fail to reach patients

• 00:31:34 Watching a 30-second brain ablation stop severe tremors

• 00:38:11 The case for delivering brain implants and therapies without opening the skull

• 00:50:56 Why high technical uncertainty makes distributed teams better than vertical integration

• 01:02:55 Why the UK keeps producing world-class neuroscience but not world-class neurotech companies

• 01:11:04 What AI-driven hypothesis generation means for breakthroughs per pound

• 01:20:40 From quantum computing to improv comedy to running £119M government brain programs

Links from the Podcast

Jacques Carolan

• Website: https://jacquescarolan.github.io/

• On X: https://x.com/jacquescarolan

Jacques’ Programmes at ARIA

• ARIA UK

• ARIA UK on Substack

• Opportunity Space

• Program 1: Precision Neurotechnologies

• Program 2: Massively Scalable Neurotechnologies

Research Papers + Technical References

• Physical principles for scalable neural recording (2013)

• How advances in neural recording affect data analysis (2011)

• Personalized brain circuit scores identify clinically distinct biotypes in depression and anxiety (2024)

• Predictive validity in drug discovery (2022)

• The “Sewing Machine” for minimally invasive neural recording (2019)

• Professor Gabriele Lignani on closed-loop gene therapy for epilepsy

Videos + Demonstrations

• DBS Tremor Surgery Demonstration

• John Nelson on DBS for Depression at ARIA Summit

References Mentioned in Conversation

• Harvard Designated Driver Campaign partnered with more than 160 TV shows, including Cheers and Dallas, helping popularize designated driving before Friends premiered in 1994

• Mahnaz Avarneh — Neurotechnology Is Inequity

Books + Media

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams

• The Expanse — James S.A. Corey

• The Idea Factory — Jon Gertner

• Imagined Worlds — Freeman Dyson

• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) — Dennis E. Taylor

• Pantheon

• Neu World — Ryota Kanai / Araya

• Analogue Quantum Simulation (Jacques’ book)

Links

• Protocol Labs

• PL Neuro

• Juan Benet Podcast on YouTube

• Juan Benet Podcast on Spotify

• Juan Benet Podcast on Apple

• Juan Benet Podcast on Amazon

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