In January 2026, BrainMind hosted Bending the Arc of Neuroinnovation, a private gathering during J.P. Morgan Week that brought together a curated community of entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors to help shape the future of neurotechnology for the benefit of humanity.
The day featured hands-on neurotech demonstrations, startup lightning pitches, and thought-provoking breakout discussions with leading voices in neuroscience, technology, and venture. Designed to spark collaboration and advance responsible innovation, the gathering explored how today’s breakthroughs could bend the arc of neuroinnovation toward a more conscious and impactful future.
Schedule
January 12th, 2026
3:00 - 4:00 PM - Experiential Neurolab
4:30 - 5:15 PM - Lightning Pitches
5:15 - 6:15 PM - Light Dinner, Demos, and Networking
6:15 - 6:45 PM - Musical Performance
7:00 - 8:00 PM - Asilomar-Inspired Breakouts
8:00 - 9:00 PM - Social hour
Experiential Neurolab
The gathering will include a hands-on Experiential NeuroLab with exciting inventions and technology demonstrations. Participating companies include:
Lightning Pitch Presenters
Blake Gurfein, PhD - CEO, Fareon
Annie Kathuria, PhD - Founder, Organotics
Takufumi Yanagisawa, MD, PhD - CEO, ivec, inc
Ben Woodington, PhD - CEO, Coherence Neuro
Justin Sanchez, PhD - Fellow, Battelle
Eric Leuthardt, MD, MBA - CEO, Aurenar
Rommie Amaro, PhD - Founder, NovoDyn
Ludovica Labruna, PhD - CEO, Magnetic Tides
Robert Spitale, PhD - CEO, Savanna Bio
Taufik Valiante, MD, PhD - CSO, SIGNL Neurotech
Jamie Heywood - CEO, Alden Scientific
Simon Bachmann - CEO, IDUN Technologies
Breakout Discussions
Special breakout discussions will offer participants the opportunity to dive more deeply into the Asilomar workshop themes that will continue in March. These roundtables will bring together subject-matter experts and attendees to explore emerging questions, workshop ideas in progress, and build collaborative momentum ahead of the March sessions.
Amy Kruse, PhD, Satori Neuro
Samantha Tabone, XEIA Venture Partners
Karen Rommelfanger, PhD, Ningen Neuroethics Co-Lab
Stephen Damianos, PhD, The Neurorights Foundation
Featured Artist
SUUVI is a Cuban-Chinese multidisciplinary artist, composer, and producer working at the intersection of music, neuroscience, and technology. A Juilliard-trained cellist and former international soloist, she has performed on leading global stages including Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, and La Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Her work explores how sound, altered states, and sensory environments shape cognition, emotion, and human resilience. Collaborating with neuroscientists, researchers, and technologists, SUUVI creates immersive musical works, films, and live experiences investigating consciousness, healing, and perception.
An interdisciplinary creator and speaker, her work has been presented at Google X, J.P. Morgan, UTA Foundation, NYU, UCLA, The Milken Institute, and The Climate Reality Project. She serves as Chair of Music and Performing/Fine Arts for The Impact Guild and is an advocate for mental health, consciousness research, and human-centered approaches to healing, translating artistic intuition into experiential frameworks for understanding the mind and the future of human experience.
SUUVI, The Impact Guilde
Dark Therapy: Sound, Vulnerability, and the Inner Landscape
This performance is a live neuroarts experience blending music, spoken narrative, and immersive sensory design to explore the relationship between sound, consciousness, interoceptive awareness, and mental wellbeing.
Drawing from Dark Therapy—SUUVI’s neuroarts project developed in collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies—the work integrates cello, electronic composition, spatial sound, and visual elements to create a meditative environment that encourages introspection, altered perception, and heightened awareness of internal states. Spoken reflection is woven throughout, integrating SUUVI’s personal journey with mental health and neuroscience into the musical architecture.
Grounded in mental health advocacy, the performance reframes inner darkness as a site of reflection and resilience rather than pathology. It invites audiences into a shared experiential space where lived experience, art, and emerging neuroscience converge to explore how carefully designed sensory environments—and radical vulnerability—can support self-regulation, embodiment, and healing.
