BCI Atlas

A US-linked international prototype collaboration: Allen, UW, Janelia, Johns Hopkins, UCL and IMEC. Paper-grounded roles and forecast availability are separate from product release.

Lab — American

Allen, UCL and IMEC Neuropixels Opto collaboration

Official site → Seattle, WA, USA; London, UK; Leuven, Belgium

Neuropixels Opto · photonics · optogenetics · Allen Institute · UCL · IMEC · prototype
Last reviewed against public sources: Oct 7, 2026

Applications

Devices used

Neuropixels Opto collaboration

The 2026 Neuropixels Opto prototype brings electrical recording and photonic stimulation into one probe. Its cortical circuit application and parallel optotagging application use separate preparations and denominators.

Primary-paper team

The paper lists affiliations at Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, Allen Institute for Brain Science and Allen Institute MindScope in Seattle; University of Washington; Janelia Research Campus; Johns Hopkins; UCL in London; and IMEC in Leuven. This brief is placed in the US-linked catalog, while the UK and Belgian roles remain explicit.

The author information names Joshua Siegle and Matteo Carandini as joint supervisors. Anna Lakunina, Karolina Socha and Alexander Ladd are equal-contribution authors. These roles are directly stated, not inferred from names or author order.

The UCL program page says the development team is led by Siegle at Allen and Carandini at UCL. It names funding from Wellcome, Allen, HHMI, NTNU and NIH BRAIN among other sources. No funding amount, device price, licence or corporate ownership is inferred.

Prototype is not product release

The 2026 paper says the demonstrated devices are prototypes and outlines changes still needed before mass production. UCL expects availability to the community in 2028. That forecast is recorded as such, not as guaranteed delivery or current commercial availability. The paper’s at-cost distribution aim supplies no current price.

The electrical backend derives from Neuropixels 1.0, with separately integrated photonics. Optical fibers and recording cables remain external equipment. Planned blue-light improvements and output-power feedback are future work, not features silently added to the prototype catalog.

Sources