Keith Thomas
Participant in the Feinstein Institutes' double neural bypass trial, whose three-year results, published in Nature Medicine in July 2026, show restored hand movement and touch that persisted after stimulation stopped.
Background
Keith Thomas has tetraplegia from a spinal cord injury sustained in a diving accident in July 2020. In March 2023 a Northwell Health surgical team led by Ashesh Mehta and Netanel Ben-Shalom implanted five microelectrode arrays in his brain, two in the hand area of the motor cortex and three in the hand area of the somatosensory cortex, as part of the Feinstein Institutes’ double neural bypass trial led by Chad Bouton.
Results
The system reads his intent to move, drives his own hand through stimulation of his forearm muscles and spinal cord, and returns touch from his hand to his brain. The three-year follow-up, published as the cover feature of Nature Medicine on 16 July 2026, shows that he can feed himself, drink from a cup and feel touch on his right wrist. His strength and sensation gains persisted more than two years after the stimulation was switched off. “Being able to feel my sister’s hand, to pet my dog and feel her fur,” Thomas said, “these experiences that the injury took away have been restored.”
Why it matters
The paper covers one person, and the system works only in the Feinstein lab. Thomas’s results underpin the plans of Neuvotion, Bouton’s company, which has licensed the platform and is bringing its wearable stimulation half to market first; the implanted half remains investigational, and Thomas is the only participant publicly reported on the main trial protocol. Whether Feinstein enrols further participants will show how far his gains generalise.