BLUE HILLCO
  • Home
  • Tech
    • 5G
    • Amazon
    • Apple
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cars
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • Microsoft
    • Mobile
    • Policy
    • Privacy
    • Samsung
    • Scooters
    • Tesla
  • Startups
  • Science
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • NASA
    • Space
  • Creators
    • Adobe
    • Camera Reviews
    • Cameras and Photography
    • Instagram
    • Kickstarter
    • Tumblr
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Film
    • Fortnite
    • Game of Thrones
    • SpaceX
    • Gaming
    • TV Shows
  • How To
  • Deals
  • Finance
    • Money
    • Investing
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Credit Cards
    • Insurance
    • Banking
    • Mortgages
    • Taxes
    • Loans
No Result
View All Result
BLUE HILLCO
  • Home
  • Tech
    • 5G
    • Amazon
    • Apple
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cars
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • Microsoft
    • Mobile
    • Policy
    • Privacy
    • Samsung
    • Scooters
    • Tesla
  • Startups
  • Science
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • NASA
    • Space
  • Creators
    • Adobe
    • Camera Reviews
    • Cameras and Photography
    • Instagram
    • Kickstarter
    • Tumblr
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Film
    • Fortnite
    • Game of Thrones
    • SpaceX
    • Gaming
    • TV Shows
  • How To
  • Deals
  • Finance
    • Money
    • Investing
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Credit Cards
    • Insurance
    • Banking
    • Mortgages
    • Taxes
    • Loans
No Result
View All Result
BLUE HILLCO
No Result
View All Result
Home Startups

NeuraLight aims to track ALS, Parkinson’s and more with an ordinary webcam

Shirley C. Stewart by Shirley C. Stewart
24 May 2022
in Startups
0
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on PinterestShare on RedditShare on TumblrShare on WhatsApp

You might also like

Speechmatics raises $62M for its inclusive approach to speech-to-text AI

Egyptian healthtech startup Vezeeta cuts 10% of 500-person staff

Conversion Capital locks down its biggest fund ever to back early-stage fintech and infrastructure startups

The process of diagnosing and tracking the progression of neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s is often long and imprecise, involving surveys, hospital visits and in-person observations that experts must interpret on the fly. NeuraLight claims it has built a better way, one that uses nothing but an ordinary webcam and could have a huge effect on how these conditions are treated. The company just secured $25 million to build out the team and put the method in doctors’ hands.

The lack of standardization is a huge problem in diagnosis and tracking of neurological disorders: because they are so complex and often slow to develop, it is extremely difficult for a single approach to catch something like Alzheimer’s at an early stage.

In fact, it’s estimated that misdiagnosis is rife in the field, not due to any lack of rigor by caregivers but simply because of the level of variability in the process. Now imagine if you had a cohort of people diagnosed with a disorder, and as much as a quarter of them may not actually have it — how can you be sure that any treatment you’re testing is effective? This confidence crisis in the data needs an objective metric to be mitigated, and that’s what NeuraLight, based in Austin and Tel Aviv, is building.

CEO Micha Breakstone, having sold his previous company Chorus.ai for $575 million, met his co-founder Eddy Benami and was fascinated by the possibilities of his research.

“It’s kind of crazy, but there’s basically no objective markers for neurological disorders. You can’t develop drugs for diseases you can’t measure,” he said. “He had developed this tech that could glean these micro-parameters from the eye, indicating cognitive load.”

A meeting in an office showing digital readings of a preson's face.

Image Credits: NeuraLight

This, along with other eye movements and metrics, has been linked to neurological disorders for years in numerous publications. But it hasn’t been a useful technique for measuring the progress of a disease because it uses specialized equipment and expert analysis.

NeuraLight uses an ordinary off-the-shelf webcam, or simply a smartphone, and applies modern image analysis techniques “to extract these, let’s call them sub-pixel or sub-millimeter signals, stuff that isn’t in one frame. We’ve been able to ascertain that we are as accurate, if not more, than a professional gaze tracker that costs tens of thousands of dollars,” Breakstone said. (“Which is insane,” he added.)

Now, this could be used in clinical contexts in the future, for neurological testing from home, but that’s something that may have to wait on FDA approval and more tests. Fortunately it can be useful even before making any serious medical claims, because the analysis the company does on the ocular imagery can be applied concurrently with other analyses in clinical trials, helping improve their accuracy with only minor changes to existing methods.

“We’re taking a page from Flatiron here; in essence we’re adding a layer of data by tagging patients,” Breakstone explained. “For example, if we go and look at a cohort of a thousand people for Parkinson’s, and we know 250 don’t suffer from it… if all we did was come in and tag the patients we suspect don’t have it, we can re-analyze the data without it being considered cherry-picking or p-hacking, because it’s new data. You can enormously increase the chances of success without making any regulated claims.”

(Update: I understood NeuraLight as being applicable retrospectively as well, but this is not the case. I’ve adjusted the above section to reflect that the technique is being applied to new studies only.)

There’s been a lot of work in this area, because eye movements have been known to be important indicators of brain health for a long time. But more detail in analysis could yield new results from existing studies, or lead to quicker or better indicator detection in clinical situations.

A meeting in an office showing digital readings of a person's face.

Image Credits: NeuraLight

As before, there are no claims of diagnosis or treatment here, but as an unprecedented objective measure of neurological disease, NeuraLight’s measurements could still help doctors diagnose and track these conditions.

Tracking in particular is a major issue. It’s difficult enough to get anyone to come to the hospital for tests these days, and far more so if they’re someone with a neurological disorder that’s getting worse. If the indicators for progress or successful treatment were visible via the user’s home webcam, as Breakstone envisions it, “instead of coming to see someone once every quarter — at best — you can do our test twice a week. On any standard Zoom call you’ll be able to get a full neurological evaluation, just by participating in the call — without any stimuli, just passively.”

That’s still a ways off, but they’ve already done tests of hundreds of healthy volunteers for a control group and are about to begin studies to create an agent to detect ALS. For fast-moving variants of this (and other) disorders, it’s incredibly helpful for outcomes if you detect and start treatment earlier, even by a few months.

There are also trials and partnerships underway to build models for identifying signs of Parkinson’s, MS and Alzheimer’s, as well as the subtype.

The company raised $5.5 million just last October, and now has a $25 million A round, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Breyer Capital, Samsung NEXT, VSC Ventures, Chris Mansi, David Golan and Lily Sarafan.

The money will help build out the team, which Breakstone effused about as being world-class already, and continuing to build their infrastructure and product.

“Our end goal is to establish a novel standard for neurological disorders, for progression, monitoring and diagnosis, but to start with pharma as a decision making tool,” he said. “We’re on an urgent mission to make a real impact — this isn’t academic.”

Share30Tweet19Pin7ShareShareSend
Shirley C. Stewart

Shirley C. Stewart

Recommended For You

Speechmatics raises $62M for its inclusive approach to speech-to-text AI

by Shirley C. Stewart
28 June 2022
0
Speechmatics raises $62M for its inclusive approach to speech-to-text AI

Last week I wrote about an AI startup that’s building technology that can alter, in real time, the accent of someone’s speech. But what if the AI goal...

Read more

Egyptian healthtech startup Vezeeta cuts 10% of 500-person staff

by Shirley C. Stewart
28 June 2022
0
Egyptian healthtech startup Vezeeta cuts 10% of 500-person staff

Vezeeta, a healthtech startup operating in the Middle East and Africa, reportedly laid off about 10% of its staff last week. The number of affected employees isn’t known; however,...

Read more

Conversion Capital locks down its biggest fund ever to back early-stage fintech and infrastructure startups

by Shirley C. Stewart
28 June 2022
0
Conversion Capital locks down its biggest fund ever to back early-stage fintech and infrastructure startups

When Christian Lawless founded Conversion Capital in 2015, fintech was only starting to take off. But Lawless, who started the venture firm after serving in leadership positions in...

Read more

JourneyOne harvests a dope $10M fund to invest in cannabis tech

by Shirley C. Stewart
28 June 2022
0
JourneyOne harvests a dope $10M fund to invest in cannabis tech

As the cannabis markets are maturing, we’re seeing new opportunities rise to the surface. JourneyOne ventures told bluehillco it’s closed a $10 million fund and has started making...

Read more

Astrix Astronautics’ Fia Jones on wooing Peter Beck to launch her startup

by Shirley C. Stewart
28 June 2022
0
Astrix Astronautics’ Fia Jones on wooing Peter Beck to launch her startup

Fia Jones was 19 years old and studying physics at the University of Auckland in 2019 when she approached Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck at a...

Read more
Next Post
Your investor has an investment thesis. Here’s why you should care

Your investor has an investment thesis. Here’s why you should care

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles

Google Maps’ new ‘Immersive View’ combines Street View with satellites

Google Maps’ new ‘Immersive View’ combines Street View with satellites

24 May 2022
The best Memorial Day sales happening now

The best Memorial Day sales happening now

28 May 2022
5 Best Photo Editing Apps On Your Smartphone

5 Best Photo Editing Apps On Your Smartphone

26 May 2022

Browse by Category

  • Creators
    • Adobe
    • Camera Reviews
    • Cameras and Photography
    • Instagram
    • Kickstarter
    • Tumblr
  • Deals
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Film
    • Fortnite
    • Game of Thrones
    • Gaming
    • Internet
    • TV Shows
  • Finance
    • Investing
    • Money
  • How To
  • Reviews
  • Science
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • NASA
    • Space
    • SpaceX
  • Startups
  • Tech
    • 5G
    • Amazon
    • Apple
    • Apps & Software
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cars
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • Microsoft
    • Mobile
    • Policy
    • Privacy
    • Samsung
    • Scooters
    • Tesla
BLUE HILLCO

© 2022 BlueHillco - Premium news & magazine website. All rights reserved BlueHillco.com

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Tech
    • 5G
    • Amazon
    • Apple
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cars
    • Facebook
    • Google
    • Microsoft
    • Mobile
    • Policy
    • Privacy
    • Samsung
    • Scooters
    • Tesla
  • Startups
  • Science
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Health
    • NASA
    • Space
  • Creators
    • Adobe
    • Camera Reviews
    • Cameras and Photography
    • Instagram
    • Kickstarter
    • Tumblr
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Film
    • Fortnite
    • Game of Thrones
    • SpaceX
    • Gaming
    • TV Shows
  • How To
  • Deals
  • Finance
    • Money
    • Investing
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Credit Cards
    • Insurance
    • Banking
    • Mortgages
    • Taxes
    • Loans

© 2022 BlueHillco - Premium news & magazine website. All rights reserved BlueHillco.com

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Go to mobile version
Ads Blocker Image Powered by Code Help Pro

Ads Blocker Detected!!!

We have detected that you are using extensions to block ads. Please support us by disabling these ads blocker.

Refresh
Powered By
CHP Adblock Detector Plugin | Codehelppro