Program

What we are building, and in what order.

Low-cost, carefully measured hardware to support the brain’s own maintenance systems. Bench first. Independent verification before people. Evidence before claims. Technical details deliberately withheld until results are ready.

The idea

Support the systems the brain already uses to maintain itself.

A healthy brain clears its own waste, powers its own repair, feeds and protects its own tissue and rewires its own connections, and it does most of that work during deep sleep. Research over the past fifteen years has mapped these systems in detail and shown that they weaken with age and in neurodegenerative disease. That knowledge was won with research-grade equipment in university laboratories.

Our thesis is that hardware to support these systems can be engineered to be far simpler, safer and less expensive than the instruments used to discover them, so that the right questions can be studied more widely and, if the answers are good, solutions can reach the people who need them rather than only the clinics that can afford them.

We are not describing our specific approach publicly at this stage. We are describing how we work, where we are, and what it will take to earn the right to say more.

The science we build on →

What this is not

Not a product for sale. Not a treatment. Not a wellness gadget. The first unit is a bench instrument for non-human characterisation, and no human exposure target or protocol is published or planned at this stage. See what we do not claim.

Why hardware

Many of the brain’s maintenance processes are physical as much as chemical: fluid moving, vessels changing diameter, energy being produced and distributed. Physical systems can be measured directly, supported directly and checked by independent instruments. Hardware also has a different cost structure from a drug; once the engineering is right, it can be made inexpensively and reproduced anywhere.

How we work

Built to be checked by someone who was not in the room.

Five interdependent systems that maintain a healthy brain A healthy brainmemory · movement · mood · independence Clearancefluid flow removes waste Energymitochondria power repair Blood vesselssupply and barrier Immunitymicroglia protect and prune Sleepwhen maintenance runs hardest
Figure 3. The five brain-maintenance systems our program and library are organised around.

  1. Measure, do not assume

    Everything the hardware does is measured by instruments independent of the ones that control it, so a fault in either is visible rather than hidden.

  2. Safety has its own authority

    Safety functions are engineered separately from everything else and can stop the system regardless of what the rest of it believes. This is standard practice in safety-critical engineering, and we hold ourselves to it from the first bench unit.

  3. Everything is recorded

    Results are logged in enough detail that an outside reviewer can reconstruct and audit them without taking our word for anything.

  4. Certified, off-the-shelf, inexpensive

    We build from industrial components that already carry certifications, chosen for cost and availability, so the design can be verified by others and eventually reproduced at scale.

  5. Publish, including failures

    Bench results will be shared in plain language as they are produced, negative results included. Specific designs follow when they have earned it.

Roadmap

Where we are, honestly.

Each stage has an exit gate. We do not move to the next one by calendar.

  1. Done · 2025–2026

    Science review and design

    Literature synthesis, system design and safety concept completed. Foundational protections in place.

  2. Now · Q4 2026

    First bench unit

    Components ordered and arriving. Assembly, instrument checkout and staged bench testing against known references. Non-human only.

  3. Next

    Independent verification

    Measurement accuracy and safety behaviour verified by people outside the program. Bench data published, including what did not work.

  4. Then

    Regulatory pathway and clinical partners

    Formal regulatory determination, risk management, and design of supervised research studies with academic and clinical collaborators under appropriate ethical oversight.

  5. Goal

    Access

    If, and only if, the evidence supports it: a safe, low-cost, supervised system that can reach the people and places that need it, with pricing structured for access.

Bench update cadence

We will show our work.

As the first unit comes together we will publish short, plain-language bench notes here and to the community list: what was measured, how, and what it means. Negative results included.

Want the notes?

Email [email protected] with the subject “Bench notes” and we will add you. No health information, please.