What is Human Augmentation?
A deep tech perspective on how technology can impact the human experience
Working at a deep tech venture fund is exciting work. Here at Prime Movers Lab, we have a broad interest in deep tech and cover some of the most exciting elements in this domain including transportation, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, and human augmentation. I especially like that space is in transportation, I’m ready to go!
While the other terms like manufacturing or infrastructure are a bit more obvious, when I mention our Human Augmentation focus — I always get a few raised eyebrows! What do we mean by human augmentation?
Before I dive into our specific intentions here — I poked around the web to see what others are saying. Interestingly, a lot of the discussions were on the same theme, and it’s exciting to see convergence in this space. I noted lots of language around enhancing and expanding human capabilities, which has fundamentally been the genesis of this area of work and study. The “original” augmentations were things like eyeglasses and telescopes, and it’s only taken off from there. Also, you know things are getting interesting when the defense agencies of the world start studying it! (By the way, this document is extremely current and a GREAT reference!)
That’s actually how I first came into augmentation work. During my time at DARPA, we worked on developing neurotechnologies to speed up learning or augment warfighter performance in real-time. One program was actually called “Augmented Cognition,” and it specifically sought to ameliorate cognitive overload on complex military tasks in real-time using a closed-loop neurotechnology intervention.
Most augmentation references tend to focus on either the physical or cognitive elements, as captured in this clever graphic from a report by the UK Ministry of Defence.
However, at Prime Movers Lab we are also interested in biological augmentation, captured — but not entirely contained — by our focus on longevity. The topic of longevity itself is too long for this overview, but I encourage you to read the excellent blogs by my colleague Jyothi Devakumar for her in-depth take on this exciting field of research.
So, to recap, at Prime Movers Lab we are looking at three elements of augmentation: physical, cognitive, and biological.
As I step through these areas, I’ll give specific examples from our portfolio to try and anchor these ideas. And of course, any cutting-edge deep tech company worth its salt can’t always be put nicely into a single category, so I will also discuss some areas that have natural overlap.
Physical Augmentation
Physical augmentation, taken most simply, covers prosthetic and assistive devices. That might include prosthetic limbs, such as our portfolio company Unlimited Tomorrow, which has come up with an absolutely revolutionary and much more cost-effective way to provide upper-limb prostheses for both children and adults. If you haven’t seen the stories on their website — you must check it out (and grab a tissue first!). While assistive devices for the restoration of function have progressed incredibly (look at the seriously sci-fi limbs produced by the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program at DARPA), there is also talk of expanding function in able-bodied individuals as well, like the Third Thumb project out of University College London. Their work poses some interesting questions about neuroplasticity and the natural ability of the brain to adapt to new inputs and devices (more on that in a moment). Physical augmentation also encompasses exoskeletons that have been developed for both restoration and enhancement and show incredible promise. Additionally, wearable sensors are really making an impact on augmentation, with both measurement and the potential to add/enhance sensory function. Our mobile phones are a ubiquitous form of enhancement, and as devices like VR and AR migrate us from handheld to head-worn, certainly those physical augmentations will expand our cognitive universe as well. Where these deep tech areas intersect in order to improve and expand the human experience are of interest to us at Prime Movers Lab.
Cognitive Augmentation
And quickly we transition into elements of overlap between these areas! One specific example is our portfolio company Paradromics. Paradromics is building the next generation invasive brain computer interface with a low profile and high bandwidth system to directly decode brain signals into actions. Clearly, this is a cognitive augmentation, but one with critical intersections into the physical augmentation domain previously discussed. Invasive brain computer interfaces will be used to drive communication devices, physical limbs, wheelchairs, and probably many, many things we haven’t even considered yet! Brain computer interfaces, both invasive and non-invasive, are clear examples of cognitive augmentation that can be used for both restoration of function and enhancement of function. For a fun review of brain computer interfaces, read our blogs (1,2) and watch our webinar here. An existing portfolio company, Optios, is taking a non-invasive approach to enhancing performance, initially for golf, through a closed-loop non-invasive neurotechnology system.
Neurostimulation devices, those that directly cause changes in the brain (using electricity, magnets, ultrasound) are also powerful tools for cognitive augmentation. I’ve reviewed that area previously here, and we are incredibly excited about the potential of these technologies. So much so, that this year we funded Attune Neurosciences, a company using a non-invasive neurostimulation approach to modulate sleep and wakefulness. Sleep is just one (really important!) state that can be augmented using these techniques. We’ll be spending more time covering this space in an upcoming webinar, but the notion that critical functions in the body and brain can be controlled non-invasively and without drugs — pretty powerful. Invasive neurostimulation devices have shown incredible promise both peripherally (for things like pain, bladder control) and centrally (memory augmentation). An outstanding academic review of cognitive augmentation can be found here. It is certainly one of the most comprehensive that I have seen and an excellent orientation to the breadth of neurotechnologies in this area.
Biological Augmentation
While perhaps the broadest grouping, biological augmentation is also a space where we are seeing some of the most rapid developments. Spurred on by the advent of CRISPR-enabled gene editing, novel AI/ML methods starting to intersect with drug development, rapid screening, and a whole host of other process improvements in biology — there’s a lot of augmenting going on! And thank goodness for that — we humans need a bit of help at this moment. Two portfolio companies that have an overlap in both the biological and cognitive domain are Vaxxinity and Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals. While Vaxxinity’s nearest term goal is its COVID vaccine, its follow-on goals include using their synthetic peptide immunogens (linked to precision-engineered target antigens) to target Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s. The potential impact of a vaccine for neurodegenerative diseases on human cognition and healthspan would be immense. Similarly, I’ve covered the emerging psychedelics landscape in previous blogs (1,2) and our webinar. Our portfolio company Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals is developing novel pharmaceuticals inspired by psychedelics for addressing the most pernicious mental health challenges — ranging from treatment-resistant depression, opioid use disorder, and anxiety. These developments are nothing short of revolutionary for both mental health and brain health. This is the future! As part of this thrust, we will continue to focus on companies that can have an outsized impact on neurodegeneration, cognition, and mental health.
In our longevity efforts within biological augmentation, we have been quite active as well. There’s so much excitement in this space and much to track. Here I will highlight some of our current investments, and refer you to my colleague Jyothi’s writings for a larger perspective. In terms of enabling technologies, our existing portfolio company Gordian has created the first in vivo therapeutic screening platform to improve drug development for complex diseases of aging. Its pooled approach allows it to target some of the most complex diseases, and the company proved its approach in an existing disease model, which opens up its drug discovery efforts. At the intersection of physical and biological augmentation, one of our newer investments in IVIVA Medical is directly addressing the plight of organ shortages and organ failure by creating novel synthetic organs that can be implanted in humans. This is one approach to organ replacement, along with other regenerative medicine approaches to grow new human tissue and organs. As my colleague, Caleb Bell details in his blog, addressing complex organs (kidney, pancreas, lung) would be a game-changer for human health. The IVIVA team has made incredible progress this year. And finally, a company that we have most recently increased our investment in, Elevian, is going after one of the most challenging topics, ischemic stroke recovery. Their work derived from the original observations from Harvard Professors Amy Wagers, Richard Lee, and Lee Rubin who identified that GDF11 was the blood-borne factor associated with the “young blood” in parabiosis experiments. The Elevian team is now full speed ahead on the clinical work needed to demonstrate their findings in humans. Having this type of intervention for stroke would have a huge impact on human life and continued health (and they are just starting with stroke!).
It has been an exciting year for the human augmentation focus of our portfolio. It’s been such a pleasure to work with my colleagues Caleb Bell and Jyothi Devakumar on these efforts. And yet, there’s even more to come! Please keep a lookout for new webinars and blogs on their way in these areas.
You might have noticed that we’re not a typical biotech investing team. With this focus on human augmentation, we are truly looking for breakthrough technologies in these domains. We are grateful and appreciative of the efforts of the entire biotech investing community to bring many more therapies, devices, and interventions to clinical use and to market. But at Prime Movers Lab, we’ll be deep-tech-ing our biotech, and on the way, helping to create a healthy and abundant future for all of humankind.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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