CAS alum Aryan Govil came up with a life-changing idea while bored in a biochemistry class at NYU: a way to make mind control a reality. In the summer after his junior year, Govil co-founded Synaptrix Labs, where he is creating a brain-computer interface device that people with limited mobility can use to operate a wheelchair using only their mind.
Since then, Govil said he has received over $500,000 from venture capital, $100,000 from Microsoft and a combined $50,000 from NYU and the University of California, Berkeley to develop this technology. Now, Synaptrix Labs is working to raise $5 million to expand its initiative.
In an interview with WSN, Govil talked about his inspiration for creating Synaptrix Labs, fundraising for a startup and submitting a device to the Food and Drug Administration.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WSN: How did NYU support you in the process of creating Synaptrix Labs?
Govil: One of the things that NYU does really well is they support student research. None of this would have happened if we didn’t get $1,000 from them. Seems simple — it’s $1,000 — but there’s not a lot of universities that do that. NYU has an Entrepreneurial Institute, the ELab, and it’s a full startup program. We took part in it this past summer and worked with the team there. We’ve worked a lot with NYU — with their research teams, with their team at the Entrepreneurial Institute at CAS. There are very limited schools in the United States that would really support students starting their companies, but NYU is definitely one of them.
Growing up in the Bay Area, Govil said he was inspired to pursue neuroscience after volunteering in a senior care home specializing in Alzheimer’s disease and seeing the devastating effects that complex neurological conditions had on patients and their families.
Govil founded Synaptrix Labs with his roommate Eric Yao, both of whom graduated from NYU in 2024. He received the DURF grant from the College of Arts & Science — which awards students up to $1,000 for their research projects — to start working on Neuralis, a device that allows people experiencing paralysis to control their wheelchair movement with their minds.
WSN: What is it like to watch Neuralis come to life?
Govil: It’s a magical thing. You wear the device — it’s a headband — and you think about moving in a direction and just go. I remember when we just moved into our new apartment, we connected it to a remote-control car, and we’re driving this car around the apartment without a controller. Now, to bring this technology to patients is hopefully going to be magical for them as well.
Neuralis, Synaptrix Labs’ largest project, works with sensors placed over the patient’s occipital lobe to track visual cues and move the wheelchair in whichever direction the patient thinks of. The team is currently in the process of setting up its own clinical trial and one in conjunction with Columbia University.
Govil said that the company met with the FDA on Wednesday to receive feedback on Neuralis and plans to officially pitch the device in December. The team, which includes four full-time employees, hopes to gain FDA approval by next spring and begin distributing Neuralis to patients worldwide.
WSN: What are some of the challenges you face while leading Synaptrix Labs?
Govil: A lot of the work that we’re doing is things that people consider to be science fiction. We say we’re in the business of taking the impossible and making it possible. One of the funniest things we realized when we started the company is if you Google anything, there are no search results for what we’re trying to do. There’s no Reddit thread, there’s no forums — there’s nothing. If we have an error, we have to figure that out, and that’s challenging.
The FDA application fee for upcoming technology is around $160,000. Govil said that the company plans to raise $5 million in the next nine months to continue expanding and developing Neuralis, and will continue to work on other projects in Synaptrix Labs as well — including a non-invasive device that allows patients with speech aphasia to communicate by placing sensors on their vocal muscles.
One of the most important things to Govil throughout the process is tracking patient happiness as they use the Labs’ devices. He and his team conduct regular quality-of-life surveys with their patients to ensure that the device is improving their mental well-being as well as their mobility.
WSN: What do you see in the future of Synaptrix Labs?
Govil: We test with patients here in New York City and their families, and they’re really excited for the day where they can actually keep the device and use them day to day. It works. It really works, and it’s really magical. The quicker we get this done, the quicker millions of people around America have access to mobility, which I think is beautiful.
Contact Rory Lustberg at [email protected].
