Carolina Aguilar, CEO and co-founder of INBRAIN Neuroelectronics: “People come first in a company, before any product”
Her passion for her work is deeply inspiring. She defines herself as a creator of winning teams, an innovator and a constant learner. Her determination reflects her vocation to change people’s lives, such as those of patients with Parkinson’s, a disease she has followed closely since her time as a researcher in the United States. Now, as CEO of INBRAIN Neuroelectronics, she aims to revolutionise neurological therapies with her real-time precision neurology brain-computer interface.
Your mission is to decode and modulate the entire nervous system. What is the true scope of your technology?
We are developing a precision technology through a graphene implant, a semiconductor material, that allows the creation of very small devices. This implant, placed in the skull, is equipped with sensors capable of diagnosing and treating in real time. It is like having a mini neurologist in the brain, detecting problems and acting precisely when needed.
You are pioneers in graphene brain implants, which you have already successfully tested in a cancer patient. Promising applications may also emerge in epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and stroke. How did the idea come about?
The credit is not mine, but belongs to the original co-founders José Garrido, Kostas Kostarelos, and Antón Guimerà, who began developing this technology 20 years ago, first with diamonds and later with graphene. They understood that, in order to modulate the brain, it was essential to obtain precise information about its activity, and graphene allows us to see the brain in high resolution and in a bidirectional way. This facilitates the development of chronic and safe implants that do not degrade over time. Graphene makes it possible to miniaturize sensors at the micrometric scale, achieving direct communication with neurons through bioelectricity—something that traditional materials like platinum or iridium cannot do.
How much information can the implant provide? Are we talking about treatment, or can it also perform patient monitoring and follow-up?
In order to create a treatment, it is important to understand that reading the brain is the same as diagnosing, while writing—that is, stimulating it—is what enables treatment. The bidirectionality of the sensors is what allows us to develop a therapy and, in the case of neurodegenerative diseases that affect the central nervous system, such as Parkinson’s, what we can do is adapt the therapy to the neurodegeneration of each patient. For example, if a patient consumes something that interferes with their medication and suffers a temporary paralysis episode, we can detect what is happening and help them recover so they can walk normally again.
And speaking of Parkinson’s, can you stop the degeneration?
What are the main challenges of graphene in implants for medical approval?
In our sector, there are already technological giants that at the time started with platinum. In the 1980s, platinum faced the same challenge that graphene faces today: it had never been implanted in the brain at a chronic level. This has provided us with a kind of roadmap for graphene and serves as a guide. In addition, we have obtained the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Breakthrough Designation and access to the TAP Program, thanks to which we hold monthly meetings with the FDA alongside a team of experts who guide us. They don’t tell us exactly what to do, but they do tell us what to avoid. In this sector, losing time means losing money and the opportunity to innovate and help patients live a normal life. We need collaboration—it is human and essential in the world—but there must also be independence and competitiveness.
AI has already proven to be more effective than traditional brain stimulation. How do you think it could revolutionise your field?
What we do with AI is called reinforcement learning. In other words, we help the algorithm learn how to create the therapy. In the future, with large language models, we will be able to interact with our implant to obtain information and help us remember medication, for example. With greater computing power and the ability to train more advanced algorithms, we will be able to develop applications and make more complex correlations that help us treat patients with a larger amount of data. I believe we are one of the most advanced brain-computer interface companies in terms of machine learning, because we not only have more data from the central nervous system but also from the peripheral system, and because we are creating therapies. Our competitors only diagnose—that is, they only read the data to create communication processes, like sending a tweet or turning on the lights at home with thought, but without creating a therapy.
When we talk about the competition, are you referring to Elon Musk?
One of them is Elon Musk. Then there are many co-founders of Neuralink who left the company and created other highly competitive companies, such as Precision Neuroscience or Science Corporation, but there are more.
At the end of last year, Science magazine named you one of the most promising medtech companies in the field of neurology. How do you think graphene will lead technological innovation in the coming years?
Recently, a ranking of the 100 best brain-computer interface companies was published, and we are fourth worldwide, ahead of Neuralink, and first in Europe. Graphene gives us a key competitive advantage, but it is not the only factor. The most important thing is that the system works in an intuitive and simple way for as many people as possible. It is not just about the material, but about how it is integrated into an intelligent system that empowers patients. In the end, patients only see their doctors twice a year for check-ups. And what can a doctor do in 15 minutes? They don’t know what happens in your day-to-day life. That is why the more we can manage our own health, the better. It is a matter of self-care with the help of the medical team. Patients have been deprived of their own data, and they also need it to manage their illness.
You have secured significant investment and expanded the team to over 70 people from 20 countries. What challenges has this growth presented?
I am convinced that people come first in any company, before any product. A true team is a group of people who can have a positive influence. Finding the right combination for this purpose is like finding a partner: it doesn’t happen overnight. You need to know what you want, have a clear direction, and share a common project. One value we foster is the game changer—that is, people who don’t give up and who, even if they fall, always get back up. We look for people with strong convictions who share our purpose and are willing to commit.
In the field of biotechnology, do you encounter young talent looking to be part of science that is more connected to society than before?
In general, I see a generational lack of motivation among young people, and I believe we have the responsibility to create meaningful missions to generate that motivation. At INBRAIN, we try to attract trained individuals so they have the opportunity to be part of our mission and feel motivated. I always say this, but I believe that in Spain and Europe we have invested a lot of time and money in research with amazing publications that later ended up in a drawer. We need to create an industrial ecosystem and translate research into development. A therapy, no matter how spectacular it is on paper, has to reach people’s lives, and we need to offer young people this way of thinking and acting.
Reading your biography, yours is a story of courage and determination. Do you think these are essential skills for entrepreneurship?
Yes, you can’t be afraid. Fear paralyses you and gets you nowhere. I always tell myself that life is on the other side of fear. I have travelled alone to India and other countries, and you see everything, but what is the alternative? I prefer to try and experiment. There is a song that says, “do something every day that scares you.” We tend to follow the same routine, like always going to the supermarket down the same street or eating the same food, but you have to dare to step out, to learn, and not stay within your closest circle.
INBRAIN is currently in a phase of growth, both in infrastructure and in team. In which direction are you steering your development?
Last year, we achieved an incredible milestone by implanting a graphene interface in the human brain for the first time. It was in Manchester, where there is a very strong scientific community in graphene, as the Nobel Prize for Graphene was awarded there, and thanks to this we were able to close a major, sustainable funding round. Our current challenge is to take this technology to chronic use, because the first implant was a one-time procedure performed during a tumour resection surgery. To make this possible, we need to add talent that can help us advance safely while complying with regulations. Until now, we have worked at the National Microelectronics Center (CNM), which has excellent infrastructure but is more research-oriented. To become more independent, we are seeking our own facility, and in this regard, the InnoFab project—which aims to develop advanced clean rooms for the semiconductor industry—is a key initiative that we are aligned with, allowing us to continue industrializing Europe and positively changing the world from places where it was previously impossible.
