# Thomas Oxley

> Thomas Oxley is an Australian physician, neural engineer, founder and CEO of Synchron, the New York neurotechnology company developing the Stentrode, an implantable brain-computer interface delivered through a blood vessel rather than open brain surgery. His route from Monash medical training and Melbourne neurology to a Mount Sinai fellowship began with an idea, roughly 200 cold emails and a reply from DARPA. He now leads Synchron as it moves from early human studies toward larger trials and commercialization.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Synchron
- **Organizations:** Synchron, Mount Sinai Health System, University of Melbourne, Vascular Bionics Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
- **From:** Canberra, Australia
- **Nationality:** Australian
- **Education:** Medical degree; Bachelor of Medical Science, Monash University, PhD in neural engineering, University of Melbourne, Internal medicine and neurology training; stroke fellowship, Royal Melbourne Hospital and The Alfred Hospital, Endovascular neurosurgery fellowship, Mount Sinai Hospital
- **Known for:** Co-conceived and led development of the Stentrode endovascular brain-computer interface with biomedical engineer Nicholas Opie and a multidisciplinary Melbourne team., Led the only non-U.S. team funded within DARPA's RE-NET neural-interface program., First-authored the 2016 Nature Biotechnology paper describing high-fidelity chronic neural recording from an endovascular stent-electrode array.

## Career timeline

- **2005** — Completed medical school at Monash University and began postgraduate clinical training.
- **2008** — Encountered research showing that implanted electrodes could let people control computers, sharpening his interest in brain-computer interfaces.
- **2011** — Cold-emailed DARPA with a proposal to reach the brain through blood vessels; the response helped start a funded research program in Melbourne.
- **2012** — Founded the venture that became Synchron and assembled collaborators including biomedical engineer Nicholas Opie and University of Melbourne researchers.
- **2016** — Completed a PhD in neural engineering at the University of Melbourne; the team's chronic endovascular neural-recording research appeared in Nature Biotechnology.
- **2017** — Completed an endovascular neurosurgery fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
- **2018** — Presented the Stentrode concept and planned human study at TEDxSydney.
- **2019** — Synchron began first-in-human clinical testing of its permanently implantable endovascular brain-computer interface in Australia.
- **2020** — Early first-in-human results were published, and the Stentrode received FDA Breakthrough Device designation.
- **2022** — Synchron announced the first U.S. human implant of its brain-computer interface and later raised a $75 million Series C.
- **2023** — Synchron completed enrollment in the six-participant U.S. COMMAND early feasibility study.
- **2025** — Synchron demonstrated native thought-based iPad control using Apple's BCI HID protocol and raised a $200 million Series D, bringing reported total funding to $345 million.
- **2026** — Synchron was included in TIME's 100 Most Influential Companies, while Oxley said the company was pursuing regulatory approval in Australia, Canada and the United States.

## Achievements

- Co-conceived and led development of the Stentrode endovascular brain-computer interface with biomedical engineer Nicholas Opie and a multidisciplinary Melbourne team.
- Led the only non-U.S. team funded within DARPA's RE-NET neural-interface program.
- First-authored the 2016 Nature Biotechnology paper describing high-fidelity chronic neural recording from an endovascular stent-electrode array.
- Advanced Synchron's system into first-in-human studies in Australia in 2019 and a U.S. early feasibility study beginning in 2022.
- Completed more than 1,600 endovascular neurosurgical procedures, according to University of Melbourne and TED biographies.
- Won the 2017 University of Melbourne Chancellor's Prize and Dean's Award for Excellence in a PhD Thesis.
- Named overall winner of the 2018 Advance Awards.
- Led Synchron through a $200 million Series D in 2025, bringing company-reported total funding to $345 million.

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — TIME named Synchron one of its 100 Most Influential Companies of 2026; Oxley said the company was pursuing regulatory approval in Australia, Canada and the United States.
- **2025-11** — Synchron raised a $200 million Series D led by Double Point Ventures to support pivotal trials, commercialization and next-generation interface development.
- **2025-08** — Synchron publicly demonstrated native thought-based control of an iPad through Apple's new BCI Human Interface Device protocol.
- **2025-05** — Synchron announced planned native integration with iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro through Apple's BCI HID profile.
- **2025-03** — Synchron announced Chiral, a brain foundation model intended to improve real-time interpretation of neural data.

## Links

- Website: https://synchron.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomoxl
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/tomoxl

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/thomas-oxley
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27