UMC Utrecht
Dutch university medical centre with a long-running ALS brain-computer interface programme. It is the clinical site for ABILITY Neurotech's chronic implant study under the INTRECOM consortium and for CorTec's planned INTENSE communication study.
Overview
University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) runs a brain-computer interface programme for people with ALS, focused on implants they can use at home without a research team present. Mariska Vansteensel, who has led its earlier implant work, is clinical lead for its next chronic study.
Home-use record
A woman with late-stage ALS in the programme has used a fully implanted BCI to communicate since 2015. A March 2026 Scientific Reports study from the UMC Utrecht Brain Center, led by Sacha Leinders, logged 337 nights of her system and found the daytime decoder produced 245 false clicks per hour while she slept. A night mode timed to her ventilator cycle ran error-free on 79 per cent of nights, at about 90 seconds per command.
Current trials
On 26 May 2026 ABILITY Neurotech announced that the Dutch ethics committee MREC NedMec had approved its chronic implantation study in ALS at UMC Utrecht, run under the INTRECOM consortium with TU Graz and CorTec and led clinically by Vansteensel. The device is a fully implantable, battery-free ECoG system with a 50 Mb/s optical data link through the scalp. The chronic trial, with UMC Utrecht and TU Graz as sites, is scheduled for Q4 2026. CorTec has named UMC Utrecht as the site of its upcoming INTENSE communication study in paralysis, announced with a second FDA Breakthrough Device Designation on 31 August 2026.
Why it matters
Two European implant companies have chosen the same Dutch site for their next human studies: ABILITY for chronic home use in ALS and CorTec for communication. The Utrecht implants will supply the chronic clinical data on which ABILITY’s commercial plan rests.
Coverage on InsideBCI
- 22 March 2026: Brain Implants Malfunction at Night, Dutch Study Reveals Critical Gap in Round-the-Clock BCI Use
- 27 May 2026: Swiss BCI startup ABILITY Neurotech wins Dutch regulatory approval to begin first chronic implantation of its fully implantable wireless BCI in ALS patients
- 22 August 2026: ABILITY Neurotech opens Munich intraoperative BCI trial
- 1 September 2026: CorTec wins a second FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its Brain Interchange implant, this one for communication