The techniques used in electrophysiology are old school, especially when looking into the animal brain. The new technique uses tiny electrodes, which are a quart of the width of a human hair. Those electrodes are an order of magnitude better than the old ways, but also very, very expensive. And prone to breaking. 3Dneuro fixes that problem with their new hardware. We discuss this with CTO Tim Schröder.
Doing research with needle-thin electrodes that are hard to find and also very expensive. “Quite stressful!”, says Tim. “Something had to change. The old technique is like taking pictures with your 1990s Nokia: it works, and it’s impossible to break, but the pictures are bad. The new technique is like using the latest iPhone instead to take a photograph. Beautiful. But if you drop it, there is a risk that your brand new €1000 device breaks, even after taking just one picture. Our brain implant is like a military-grade phone case: it protects the electrodes. That way, we make brain experiments cheaper, easier and more efficient.”
Between science and production
As a company, 3Dneuro strikes a balance between scientific research and production. The three founders, Abdel Nemri, Martha Havenith and Tim Schröder, are close to the research field. “We are a mix of hardware production and R&D. When we started 3Dneuro in 2017, we were all still working full-time at our universities. We did this on purpose and built the company up on the side. That way, we could make a name for ourselves while still maintaining our connection with the academic world. The switch to working full time for 3Dneuro was quite organic, in the end!”
The company started as a spin-off from the Radboud University, with the help of incubator Mercator Launch. “Getting up and running was difficult, but we knew it would be. Animal experimenting is a difficult field after all, both politically and socially. In a perfect world, they would not be necessary. But, at this point in time, these experiments are still absolutely necessary to advance science and will be for some decades. Therefore, our aim is to make them as efficient as possible. With the best methods, fewer animals are needed to get the results we need.”
3Dneuro works for the academic market. A second challenge which Tim saw coming. “It is a small and slow market. You have to show laboratories exactly why you’re the best solution before they want to do business with you because switching your procedures can cost thousands of euros. That’s why starting out part-time was a good idea: we were able to slowly build trust within the market.”
The 5-year mark
A third challenge came more unexpected: the decrease in funding. “As our company approached the 5-year mark, we saw that funding for start-ups stopped. With the right funding, we were able to scale things up. But without it, we were forced to become more marketable. Our approach of growing slowly wasn’t viable anymore.”
However, 3Dneuro was still able to make the transition. “We’re slowly becoming an established name. The brain implants we make are sold to 75 labs worldwide. From US universities to Nobel prize winners. And finally, we are seeing returning customers because they are working properly with our implants. We are also about to launch our second product, which is not an implant. It enables VR research on animals. Until now it was impossible to do VR research on rats. But together with Nelson Totah, a researcher in Helsinki, we made it work.”
Part of this change came through Mercator Launch. “I heard about Briskr through the incubator. I saw that Briskr was hosting seminars, and I started attending them. From business valuation to pitching and everything in between: I learned a lot! It is nice to be exposed to other companies and the ecosystem in Nijmegen. The Noviotech Campus is a good place for us to be, and it never hurts to broaden your horizons. For me personally, the BANN was great. As CTO, I don’t pitch that often. This was my chance to pitch 3Dneuro outside of the purely scientific world.”
Goals and dreams
After Covid Tim no longer answers the ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years’ question, but 3Dneuro’s goals are clear. “We want to establish our brain implants further and make it easier for researchers to carry out their experiments more easily. All this is driven by a bigger dream: we simply don’t know enough about the brain to solve all our issues yet. We want to know more, essentially everything, about the brain! By studying the brain better, you can unlock that knowledge. Our implants help scientists study the brain better, faster and cheaper.”
