Dr. Michael Lawton is the President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI). His neurosurgical expertise includes cerebrovascular disorders such as aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, cavernous malformations, and strokes, as well as skull base tumors. He received a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University and his Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his neurosurgery residency at BNI, which included a fellowship under Dr. Robert Spetzler. After six years, he joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco and served as the Vice President and Chief of Vascular Neurosurgery for 20 years before being recruited back to the valley.
Q: Barrow Neurological Institute is recognized nationally as one of the best specialty hospitals. What makes BNI stand out and what is your vision for BNI over the next 5 to 10 years?
A: At BNI, we have a creed: accept challenges, reject norms, push boundaries. This is very different from what you typically see in the medical community. Many medical professionals have this attitude of doing no harm which can translate into being a very tentative, reluctant, and hesitant mindset. Obviously, patient safety and well-being are first and foremost, but BNI is about pushing boundaries and taking on the cases that nobody else wants. BNI is known for undertaking the hardest and most challenging cases out there, and we have accomplished this by bringing in talented neurosurgeons and neurologists, being innovative in our surgeries and our approaches to overcoming disease, doing groundbreaking research, forging key partnerships, and pulling it all together in ways that the traditional academic medical centers have struggled to do. This is why we stand out.
My vision for the future is to do more of that, and faster. BNI has been primarily focused on neurological disease, but the time has come to focus even more broadly on neuroscience and understanding how the brain functions as the mind. I think understanding our greatest gift – our brain and our mind – is really what we have an opportunity at BNI to do.
Q: Can you discuss your involvement with Neuralink and the PRIME Study? What does the successful implantation of the N1 Implant mean for the future of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)?
A: BNI was selected from several other promising candidates to be the U.S. partner for Neuralink and the PRIME Study. The study has been going on since January, when we performed the operation on our first patient. That surgery and patient’s story have been well publicized in the media, and it is no secret that the patient has done extremely well. His life has been transformed and the technology has worked beautifully. We have learned a lot from the patient's experience, and the lessons learned are only going to make the device, surgery, and the entire experience better as we move on to subsequent patients. The future of neuroscience and neurosurgery will look so different in 10 years because of technologies like this.
Q: Can you tell us about your exciting new collaboration with Neuralink? What were the key factors that made Barrow Neurological Institute the ideal partner for Neuralink and vice versa?
A: As a specialty hospital, we are a very nimble organization and our ability to get things done here is unmatched. Neuralink has told us that they are incredibly pleased with the work performed thus far and the results that have followed.
Q: What advancements do you foresee in neurosurgery over the next decade, especially with the integration of new technologies such as BCIs?
A: I think over the next decade, neurosurgery will change dramatically. For example, I anticipate that we are going to have methods of manipulating brain function and modulating circuitry that allows us to treat conditions – depression, anxiety, and obesity – that have traditionally fallen under the realm of psychiatry or psychology. The area that I refer to as ‘functional neurosurgery,’ where we focus on the certain aspects of the brain functions that can be modulated, is going to be explosive. Functional neurosurgery is currently only 20% of what neurosurgeons do but will become significantly greater over time.
Q: MDM2 consortium is developing strategies to position our region as a medical device manufacturing tech hub. What advice would you give us? What do you see as our ecosystem strengths and what gaps should we work on?
A: I spent 20 years in the San Francisco Silicon Valley ecosystem, and it was such a unique ecosystem for tech. Being California’s next-door neighbor and having similar proximity to major tech players puts us in a competitive position, both strategically and geographically. With MedTech being such a broad field, it's hard to compete in certain areas, like cancer, or where there are other big hubs already established. For neuroscience, however, to be in an area like this with a leader like BNI gives us a chance. Another strength that we have is proximity to innovative universities. Arizona State University, for example, is a powerful engineering school with a huge class and a talented workforce-in-training. Our collaborations with these academic and research institutions are something that will fuel this ecosystem growth in the future.