Neuralink, the startup founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk to develop implants that will connect directly to people's brains, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation for potentially transporting hazardous pathogens after experimenting on monkeys, reported Business Insider on Thursday.
"A DOT spokesperson confirmed to Insider that the agency was looking into the issue on Thursday after an animal rights group had sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg," reported Grace Kay. "The group, the Physicians Committe of Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said in a press release on Thursday that it had emails and other records that pointed to the possibility that the company had not properly packaged the brain implants from its test monkeys ahead of transportation in compliance with Federal Hazmat Law. PCRM said the documents showed that pathogens, like antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus and Klebsiella, as well as Herpes B virus, had potentially been transported in 2019 without meeting DOT guidelines, including proper sanitization and packaging."
"The documents are from when Neuralink was working with the University of California, Davis. The partnership ended in 2020, but PCRM told Reuters that Musk's company still employs many of the same staff, including the neurosurgeon in charge of the experiments on the animal test subjects," said the report. Neuralink hasn't responded for requests to comment, but a UC Davis spokesperson "told Insider that the institution complies with lab safety and biohazard regulations."
PCRM has previously filed a lawsuit against UC Davis over the Neuralink experiments and lodged a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saying that the monkeys experienced "extreme suffering as a result of inadequate animal care and the highly invasive experimental head implants during the experiments."
Neuralink has vowed that its implants, designed to attach directly to the brain in a surgical procedure, could one day cure paralysis or even allow people to telepathically communicate with other people who have the implants.
This comes as Musk faces other legal problems in his business empire, with the Justice Department criminally investigating Tesla Motors over the company's allegedly deceptive claims about its "autopilot" driving assist features, which have been implicated in multiple deaths of drivers.
