On Thursday, Elon Musk’s brain-implant research company, Neuralink, announced it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct human trials. The company hopes to one day use its implants to cure conditions ranging from paralysis to blindness, with company chief Elon Musk himself stating he hopes to one day see the technology “restore full body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord.”

In a post on Musk’s social media platform Twitter, the company said, “We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first in-human clinical study.”

Although Musk has predicted several times the technology was going to be cleared for testing, the previous application the company submitted in early 2022 was denied by the FDA, according to scientists who worked on the program who spoke to Reuters in March.

The company continued to point out the approval is, “an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people,” and it is “the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA.”

According to the company, it has not yet begun to formulate plans to recruit study participants. The FDA has not commented on its approval of the technology for clinical trials in humans.

Musk had said last year he was so confident in the safety profile of the technology that he would have no problem implanting the chip the company has developed into the brains of his own children.

The Neuralink chip, which is roughly the size of a coin, has seen prototypes implanted into the skulls of monkeys, according to presentations the company has made updating the public on its progress. The implant is designed to measure the activity of nerves in the brain, and relay the data to an exterior device wirelessly, such as a smartphone or small computer.

Musk has noted that the device would likely find utility in a wide range of situations, from treating issues of mobility or vision impairment, to depression, or schizophrenia, or autism, and it could even be used more widely by people for such mundane tasks as helping them browse the web or check email, or even communicate telepathically with other implanted individuals.

The project has not been without controversy however. Last year, the project attracted the ire of animal welfare activists, amid the revelation that the company had killed roughly 1,500 animals ranging from monkeys, to sheep, to pigs, in the course of its initial testing.