The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is probing Elon Musk’s brain implant company, Neuralink Corp. following allegations by an animal-welfare advocacy group that the company violated a federal law when it unsafely packed and moved implants removed from the brains of monkeys that may have been infected.
The Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the DOT, said in a statement that they are taking the allegations seriously.
“We are conducting an investigation to ensure that Neuralink is in full compliance with federal regulations and keeping their workers and the public safe from potentially dangerous pathogens,” the added.
The statement came after the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine group wrote in a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg that Neuralink had engaged in “sloppy, unsafe laboratory practices.”
The group referred to emails, which it obtained via public record request and which contained correspondence between Neuralink staff and employees at the University of California at Davis in 2019, when Neuralink collaborated with the university for primate research.
According to the organization, the emails in particular indicate that in 2019, a device from the brain of a monkey who was killed in March of that year may have been transported without Neuralink adhering to correct procedures, something that could potentially result in the transmission of a deadly herpes virus.
The developments follow the Inspector General for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) opening a probe into Neuralink over employee complaints about animal testing in December 2022.
A US media outlet reported at the time that the investigation focuses on potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act and that the company has killed about 1,500 animals following its experiments since 2018. Current and former Neuralink employees, the report added, had claimed that the number of animal deaths is too high because of Musk’s demands to speed up research.
Neuralink is a brain-implant company specifically hammering out technology for people with paraplegia, which the company says would help them control computers with their minds. In November 2022, an experimental monkey was displayed during the company presentation. The monkey had had the Neuralink chip in its brain for about half a year and had not developed any side effects, according to Musk. He previously said that that the company is expected to begin human clinical trials in six months.