The US Department of Transportation said Thursday it was investigating Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink over potentially illegal shipments of dangerous pathogens.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport briefed Reuters on the investigation after the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal welfare advocacy group, wrote to Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg earlier Thursday to alert it to records it is receiving on the issue had.
PCRM said it received emails and other documents suggesting unsafe packaging and movement of implants removed from monkeys’ brains. Those implants could have transmitted infectious diseases in violation of federal laws, PCRM said.
The Department of Transportation spokesman said the agency takes PCRM’s allegations “very seriously.”
“We are conducting an investigation to ensure this neurolink is fully compliant with federal regulations and is protecting its workers and the public from potentially dangerous pathogens,” the spokesman said.
Representatives for Neuralink, including muskShe did not respond to requests for comment.
The Department of Transportation’s investigation complements its scrutiny of Neuralink, which is developing a brain implant that it hopes will help paralyzed people walk again and heal other neurological conditions.
In December, Reuters reported that Neuralink was under a federal investigation into possible animal welfare violations and that some of its employees had filed internal complaints about rushed experiments that caused unnecessary suffering and deaths.
The letter said records obtained by the group showed cases of pathogens such as antibiotic-resistant staph and herpes B virus that may have been transported without proper containment measures.
The incidents, which included potential violations of hazardous materials transportation regulations, occurred in 2019 when Neuralink relied on the University of California, Davis to help conduct its experiments on primates, according to those cited by PCRM documents.
While Neuralink’s partnership with UC Davis ended in 2020, PCRM said the company continued to employ the neurosurgeon who oversaw the experiments, and other staff involved may also continue to be employed.
Reuters reviewed the UC Davis records cited by PCRM in its letter. It is unclear if there are other records that provide a different or more complete account of what happened. PCRM obtained the records from UC Davis through public information requests. Neuralink messages and recordings not shared with UC Davis are not subject to such information requests.
A spokesman for UC Davis would only say that the university complies with all biohazard and laboratory safety regulations.
PCRM’s letter said pathogens on removed implants were transmitted from monkeys after improper disinfection and packaging. The group said these pathogens could cause serious health problems in infected people, including bloodstream infections, pneumonia and severe brain damage.
PCRM, which opposes the use of animals in medical research, has found no harm as a result of these incidents but said Neuralink’s actions “may pose a serious and ongoing risk to public health.”
“The company’s documented track record of shoddy, unsafe laboratory practices compels DOT to investigate and impose appropriate fines,” PCRM said in the letter.
PCRM said it also found cases that appear to describe UC Davis employees who called for immediate biohazard training of Neuralink employees following incidents that caused contamination issues. On one occasion in April 2019, a UC Davis employee wrote in an email that the university’s primate center was “at risk” for “monkey-contaminated hardware.”
“This is an exposure for anyone coming into contact with the contaminated explanted hardware and we are making a big deal out of it because we are concerned for people’s safety,” wrote the employee, whose name was removed from the records.
PCRM has raised concerns about Neuralink in the past. Last year, it wrote to federal officials about alleged animal welfare issues during Neuralink’s research partnership with UC Davis, citing a different set of records it received. A federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California referred PCRM’s complaint to the USDA Inspector General, who later opened the federal investigation into Neuralink, Reuters previously reported.
During its partnership with UC Davis, Neuralink became frustrated with what it saw as the slow pace of testing on primates, current and former employees at the company told Reuters, and has since built extensive in-house animal testing facilities. However, the company missed the deadlines set by Musk to conduct human trials. His pressure on Neuralink staff to make progress contributed to bugs that plagued some experiments, Reuters reported.
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