Neurotech Notables #10: June 2024
Double Digits. Dad's Day.
👶🏽Happy Father’s Day: New studies suggest dad brains lose grey matter, “primarily in the cerebral cortex, which plays a role in executive functioning, including memory, thinking, reasoning, learning, problem-solving and emotional processing. This reduction, a type of streamlining process, is thought to help the brain process information more efficiently” and help with, you know, bonding.
🔟 As we hit the tenth edition of this series, NIH opens their 10th Annual BRAIN Initiative Conference. Facing a 40 percent funding cut, the agency has been highlighting wins in media outlets as it navigates an uncertain future.
💰 Midway through the year, markets for brain health are actively evolving. From FDA approval of Lilly’s Alzheimer drug to their pre-rejection of an MDMA trial to various ADHD wake up calls, the next decade holds enormous market potential for innovations to assess brain health and cognitive states with precision and reliability.
🗞️ Read on for Funding News, Trial Results, Commercial Partnerships, New Clearances, Papers, Profiles, Articles, Events. Plus: Brain Viagra. Injectable Electrodes for Back Pain. A Parkinson’s Sniffer. Heart-Brain startups. And more.
👋Take a moment: Hit reply and let me know what you’re working on this summer.
Funding
Amber Therapeutics Closes $100m Series A to Advance Breakthrough Amber-UI Neuromodulation Therapy for Mixed Urinary Incontinence (Biospace)
Sensars secures EUR 1.1m in funding to advance revolutionary neuromodulation technology (VentureLab)
Omniscient Closes Series C, bringing total raised to $USD 60m (Globe Newswire)
Voice biomarker startup Canary Speech lands $13m to assess mental, cognitive health (First Word Health Tech)
Eisai Strengthens Venture Investment Business Aimed at Accelerating Drug Discovery Innovation and Establishment of Ecosystem Platform (Eisai)
PathMaker secures $2.16m funding from US DoD for neuromodulation ALS trial (Yahoo Finance)
Myelin-H And Arspectra Win Access To €2.41m In Funding (Silicon Luxemburg)
SCI Ventures announces launch as a first-of-its-kind venture philanthropy fund dedicated to investing in innovative therapies for spinal cord injury (SCI).
“Kicking off with $27m and an anticipated $40m by year's end… SCI Ventures grew out of the Reeve Foundation's pioneering investments in ONWARD Medical and AXONIS Therapeutics. The fund will target therapies that restore function alongside emerging technologies with the potential to fully repair the spinal cord.”
Rice’s Baker Institute unveils Neuro-Policy Program, $1m gift to advance Texas ‘brain capital’ (Rice)
Leanne Williams receives $18m NIH grant for “cognitive biotypes” for depression (Stanford Medicine)
Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Startups in Cognitive, Neurological, and Behavioral Health – Investors Mapping Landscape 1.5Q 2024 by Alex Lee (LinkedIn)
Commercial
Meta partners with Calm to bring guided meditations and mindfulness exercises to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses (Auganix)
Five companies to participate in the American Heart Association Heart and Brain Health Accelerator (American Heart Association)
IDUN & SEGOTIA partner on Earbuds with Neuro-Adaptive Audio to Enhance Sleep Quality (Sleep Review)
ActiGraph and PKG Health Partner to Improve Outcomes in Neurology Trials (ActiGraph)
CIONIC Unveils Three New Centers of Excellence on the East Coast to Aid Patient Mobility Through the Use of FDA-Cleared Bionic Clothing and Neuromodulation (Business Wire)
Neurovalens Appoints Kate Willis as Vice President of Commercialization (PR Web)
CEFALY Technology Launches Headaches.com Resource for Neuromodulation Migraine Treatment (MorningStar)
LivaNova Provides Update on RECOVER Clinical Study Evaluating VNS Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression in Unipolar Patients (Business Wire)
Note: The study failed to meet primary endpoints because….of a “strong response in the sham group.” We really need better endpoints…
Nexstim Plc Announces Planned Alzheimer’s Collaboration with Sinaptica Therapeutics, Inc.(Yahoo Finance)
Note: Interesting deal. Curious for your thoughts. recent Startup Health profile.
Nalu PNS System achieves significant and durable pain reduction, meeting the primary endpoint of the COMFORT RCT study (Palu)
Turing Medical Launches New Brain Mapping and Targeting Solution at ASSFN Biannual Meeting (MorningStar)
Regulatory & Reimbursement
Zeto obtains FDA 510(k) clearance for next-generation EEG brain monitoring product, ONE. (PR Newswire)
BrainsWay Receives Expanded FDA Labeling to Treat Late Life Depression (Brainsway)
NANS Leads Response to Washington State's Draft Guidelines for SCS Coverage (NANS)
Advocacy Milestones: Focused Ultrasound’s Importance Recognized by US Congress (FUS Foundation)
Cala TAPS Therapy is Now Covered by Medicare for Essential Tremor Patients, And Company Appoints CEO and President (PR Newswire)
FDA advisors recommend Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug donanemab, paving way for approval (CNBC)
Industry
New Study using ViewMind reveals Insights into Multiple Sclerosis and Eye Movement Behavior (LinkedIn)
Hyperarousal features in the sleep architecture of individuals with and without insomnia - Beacon Biosignals and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals (Summary | Journal of Sleep Research)
Synaptrix Labs chosen as a finalist for 2024 RESNA design grant for noninvasive Neuralis interface (LinkedIn)
Neuronoff publishes new research paper: Removal Forces of a Helical Microwire Structure Electrode (LinkedIn)
Neuronoff just released a video series on their Injectrode device for chronic pain. CEO Manfed Franke gives an overview at LSI.
Ars chats with Precision, the brain-chip maker taking the road less invasive (Ars Technica)
A Neuroscientist’s Guide to Starting a Company by Dana Watt of Breakout Ventures (Foresight Institute)
Improving Neuro-Psychiatric Trial Outcomes through fMRI: An Interview with Dr. Emily Stern, CEO of Ceretype (Calyx)
Profile: Adnan Siddiqui, Jacobs Institute, Vice Chairman of Neurosurgery at UBuffalo (NeuroNews)
Roga’s medtech platform targets mental health (EP&T)
NextSense, Neurable and Kintsugi chosen for 100 World Economic Forum Pioneers (WEF)
Noninvasive BCI used to send tweet at UN Summit (LinkedIn)
The transformative potential of computerised brain implants (Financial Times)
Articles, Analysis, Resources
Don’t Lose The Thread: Neuralink’s Problems Are Good For Neurotech (Forbes)
The Integration of Clinical Trials With the Practice of Medicine: Repairing a House Divided (Jama)
Using a smartwatch and smartphone to assess early Parkinson’s disease in the WATCH-PD study over 12 months (Nature)
BRAIN at 10: A View from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH)
New clinical assessment tool improves dementia care actions in primary care patients (NINDS)
Ultrasound offers a new way to perform deep brain stimulation (MIT News)
Breakthrough approach enables bidirectional BCI functionality (CMU)
Functional ultrasound imaging of human brain activity through an acoustically transparent cranial window (Science Translational Medicine)
This new brain-mapping device could make neurosurgery safer (NPR)
Just thinking about a location activates mental maps in the brain (MIT)
Did you know patients can stay awake during the focused ultrasound (Us Against Alzheimer’s/FUS Foundation)
Effect analysis of repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with fluoxetine in the treatment of first-episode adolescent depression (Frontiers of Psychiatry)
Your thoughts on TMS as a companion therapy to SSRI?
Red Pill or Blue Pill? Sildenafil (‘Viagra’) improves brain blood flow and could help to prevent dementia (University of Oxford)
Neuroethics & Society
Identity Theft, Deep Brain Stimulation, and the Primacy of Post-trial Obligations (Hastings Center)
New Research Brief: Current Legal and Ethical Concerns around Neurotechnology (Geneva Academy)
How Zynex inundated pain patients with unwanted batteries and surprise bills (STAT)
Hybrid Minds: What is it like to use neuroprostheses, and why does it matter? (Neuroethics Society)
Alzheimer’s Takes a Financial Toll Long Before Diagnosis, Study Finds (NYTimes)
Study Author: [Credit scores and delinquencies] “consistently worsen over time as diagnosis approaches, and so it literally mirrors the changes in cognitive decline that we’re observing.”
The truth about ADHD and autism: how many people have it, what causes it, and why are diagnoses soaring? (The Guardian)
A Drug to Slow Alzheimer’s Is Finally Available. How Are Patients Faring? (NY Times)
The Woman Who Could Smell Parkinson’s: Joy Milne, a supersmeller and co-author of several papers about Parkinson’s disease (NYT)
🗓️ Events & Community
What’s coming up that belongs in this list? Send me your events so I can share them here!
June 18: Learning Laboratory - Digital and Diagnostic Tools: What You Should Know (Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative)
June 21: Neurotech Entrepreneurs Workshop Application deadline (Cleveland NeuroDesign)
June 24: Hackathon: Ethical Future with NeuroAI - Vienna, Austria (FENS Forum)
June 25: Neurotech Panel at SF DeepTech Week (Luma)
June 27-28: BioElectronic Therapeutics Event - Paris (Rice Biotech Launch Pad)
August 2: Neuraseed BCI Expo - Virtual (Neuraseed BCI)
August 6: 2024 Neurotech Commercialization Workshop - Zoom (Neurotech Reports)
August 10-11: BMI Summit - Morgantown, WV (BMI Summit)
Sept 1: The International BCI Award by g.Tec - (LinkedIn)
Sept 19: Brainbox Initiative Conference 2024 for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation - London (BrainBox)
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❤️ Please Click the heart & share with your network. Brain Health = Human Health.