# Open-LIFU by Openwater

Canonical page: https://technooptimist.io/neurotech/open-lifu
Frontier: [Neurotech](https://technooptimist.io/neurotech.md) · Field: Non-invasive stimulation · Company: [Openwater](https://technooptimist.io/companies/openwater.md)
Stage: Pilot (3 of 5: Research → Proto → Pilot → Deploy → Scaling)
Updated: last update 2026-05-07, facts checked 2026-10-11
Goal: Make focused-ultrasound brain stimulation cheap and portable, so circuits behind depression, tremor or pain can be treated from outside the skull without implants or a hospital-sized machine.
Status: Research device at MIT, Barcelona, NC State/UNC and others; depression pilot showed 35% remission
Next milestone: Larger randomised controlled trials

## Milestones

| Status | Milestone | Date | Slip |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Done | Depression pilot results (University of Arizona) | 7 Apr 2025 |   |
| Done | Deployed at NC State and UNC for neurology research | 7 May 2026 |   |
| Planned | Larger randomised controlled trials |   |   |

## Most important updates

- **7 May 2026**: NC State and UNC deploy Open-LIFU to study tremor, spasticity and transverse myelitis. Nitin Sharma's lab at the NC State/UNC biomedical engineering department and UNC neurologists are using Open-LIFU to test focused ultrasound on brain and spinal circuits. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/nc-state-and-unc-deploy-open-lifu-to-study-tremor-spasticity-and-07a22bce.md) · [original source](https://www.itnonline.com/content/sharma-lab-deploys-open-lifu-multidisciplinary-neurological-research-nc-state-unc%C2%A0))
- **7 Apr 2025**: Open-LIFU depression pilot: 35% of 20 patients reach remission after under two hours of ultrasound. A University of Arizona study in Frontiers in Psychiatry gave 20 people with depression 11 ten-minute sessions of Open-LIFU 2.0 over three weeks, aimed at the anterior medial prefrontal cortex. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/open-lifu-depression-pilot-35-of-20-patients-reach-remission-after-409802a2.md) · [original source](https://www.medicaldevice-developments.com/news/study-reveals-effectiveness-of-open-lifu-2-0-in-reducing-depression-symptoms/))

## Current obstacles

- **Small, open-label evidence**: The depression result comes from 20 people without a sham group; larger randomised controlled studies are planned.

## Physics limits

- **The skull distorts the beam**: Bone thickness and density vary across the head and between people, bending and weakening ultrasound, so hitting a small target precisely needs per-person correction.
- **Unclear mechanism**: How gentle ultrasound changes neuron firing is not settled, so dose, timing and lasting effect are still found by trial and error.

## How it works

### Focus: An array steers sound to a point

Many ultrasound elements fire with tiny timing offsets so their waves add up at one chosen spot inside the head.

### Modulate: Low intensity, no heating

The energy is far below what destroys tissue; it is meant to nudge neurons' activity for a while rather than ablate them.

### Wear: No fixed head frame

Unlike clinic systems that clamp the head, the array is worn, so the person can move during a 10-minute session.

## Spec sheet

| Spec | Open-LIFU | Provenance |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Depression protocol | 11 x 10 min over 3 weeks | reported |
| Substantial symptom drop | 45-60% of 20 participants | reported |
| Remission | 35% | reported |
| Depression target | Anterior medial prefrontal cortex | reported |
| Regulatory status | Not FDA cleared | reported |

Provenance: reported = stated by the company; estimated = our estimate; sample = a sample figure.

## About Openwater

Openwater is a San Francisco company founded in 2016 by Mary Lou Jepsen that builds low-cost, open-source devices using light and ultrasound: Open-Motion reads blood flow in the brain to spot strokes, Open-LIFU stimulates brain circuits.

- Open-sources its designs: software under the Affero GPL, hardware under a Creative Commons licence.
- Raised $100M in total by August 2024 from investors including Khosla Ventures and Peter Gabriel.
- Neither device is FDA cleared yet; the stroke detector is furthest along. Aims for units under $1,000.

- Founded: 2016
- Headquarters: US
- Status: private
- People: Mary Lou Jepsen (Founder and chair); Aaron Timm (CEO)
- Partners, customers, investors: Khosla Ventures (investor); Plum Alley Ventures (investor); University of Pennsylvania (partner); University of Arizona (partner); NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill (partner)

Company page: https://technooptimist.io/companies/openwater.md

## Related programs

More from Openwater:

- [Open-Motion stroke detector](https://technooptimist.io/neurotech/open-motion.md) (Pilot)

Everything in Neurotech: https://technooptimist.io/neurotech.md

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