Owners: GSK (55%), Verily (45%).

President: Kris Famm (GSK's vice-president of bioelectronics R&D).

Board of directors: A seven-member board that includes Andrew Conrad (Verily's CEO) and chaired by Moncef Slaoui (GSK's vaccines chief).

Headquarters: GSK's global R&D center in Stevenage, UK. Galvani will also have a second research hub at Verily's facilities in South San Francisco.

Employees: Initially around 30 scientists, engineers and clinicians. Additionally, Galvani will fund and integrate a broad range of collaborations with the parent companies, academic centers, and other R&D companies.

Why Galvani? The company is named after Luigi Aloisio Galvani, an 18^th century Italian scientist, physician and philosopher, who was one of the first to explore the field of bioelectricity. In 1780, he made the pivotal discovery that the muscles of a frog’s legs twitched when he touched the sciatic nerve with two pieces of metal, leading him to propose the theory of bioelectricity. Galvani’s discovery, while disputed by many of his peers, paved the way for the modern study of electrophysiology and neuroscience – two fields that are key to the development of bioelectronic medicines.

New GSK-Verily JV Aims For Smart, 'Grain Of Rice' Neuromod Tech

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