NeuroCatch's Bimal Lakhani on building a vital sign for the brain
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
Release Date: 09/05/2023
Francois Ladouceur on a new paradigm for action potential sensing through optics
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is a University of New South Wales professor teaching and researching integrated optics, silica and diamond-based photonics, optical sensing networks, and photonics-based brain/machine interfaces Top 3 Takeaways: "it's a liquid crystal-based transducer that can transduce an electrical signal into an optical signal that we can carry the away from the place of measurement" With electrical-based electrodes making the devices smaller increases the impedance degrading the signal which doesn't happen in LCP based electrodes "We have built a chip, which is bidirectional, it can read the...
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Sergey Young on lifespan and health span extension through his Longevity Fund
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is a longevity investor and visionary with a mission to extend healthy lifespans of at least one billion people. To do that, Sergey founded Longevity Vision Fund to accelerate life extension technological breakthroughs and to make longevity affordable and accessible to all Top 3 Takeaways: "I'm sponsoring the development of age reversal X price. This is a technological competition to basically reverse aging measured by a set of biomarkers." "Some of the companies that we have in our portfolio decrease the cost of a particular healthcare intervention or solution to a particular health...
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Miguel Nicolelis on Neuralink and performing in front of a billion people at the 2014 World Cup
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
Although the is best known for pioneering studies in neuronal population coding, Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI) and neuroprosthetics in human patients and non-human primates, they have also developed an integrative approach to studying neurological and psychiatric disorders including Parkinsons disease and epilepsy. Top 3 Takeaways: "Every Brazilian kid dreams to play for the Brazilian national team in a world cup game, I didn't quite fulfill the dream, but I got as close as a scientist can get. And we had about 65,000 people in the stadium that day in about 1.2 billion people watching the...
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Kip Ludwig on some of the more controversial neurotech ideas
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
leads the Bioelectronic Medicines Laboratory at the , with the goal of developing next-generation neuromodulation therapies that use minimally invasive strategies to highjack the nervous system to treat circuit dysfunction and deliver biomolecules to target areas with unprecedented precision. Prior to Wisconsin, Dr. Ludwig served as the Program Director for Neural Engineering at the National Institutes of Health. He co-led the Translational Devices Program at NINDS, led the NIH BRAIN Initiative programs to catalyze implantable academic and clinical devices to stimulate and/or record from the...
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Justin Sanchez on going from working at DARPA to helping roll out tech at Battelle
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is a Life Sciences Research Technical Fellow at but before that he was Director of Biological Technologies office at DARPA. Top 3 Takeaways "You'll never be able to establish your academic career unless you go and move to another place. I'm like, guys, this doesn't make any sense to me. What's most important is to do great work in the field and establish a foundation of the field." "I still had my university job for a couple of years while I was serving at DARPA. And if my time at DARPA and everybody's term-limited at DARPA. When that term ended, I could have gone back to Miami." "I...
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Victor Pikov on starting a bioelectronic medicine company after working at Galvani
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the founder and CEO of , a sacral nerve stimulation neuromodulation company and VP of Technology at TRI, Trans Stimulation Incorporated. He also worked at Galvani, a joint venture between Google and GSK as well as working in academia before. Top 3 Takeaways "When you try to speak to potential investors who consider themselves experts in medical devices, they typically fall into three categories: One is no experience with neuromodulation and another bucket is experienced with wearable neuromodulation. And the third very small bucket is experience with implantable class three...
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Daniel Palanker on breaking physics to found neurotech companies
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is at Stanford University. He has had many successful technologies spun off into companies or patents including those involving retinal prosthetics, optical imaging and spectroscopy, laser-tissue interactions, and retinal plasticity. Top 3 Takeaways "The [size] limitation for a retinal prosthesis is not in a fabrication side. The limitation is an interface with neurons" Allergan acquired Oculeve but then didn't do much with it seemingly because they already had a more profitable drug on the market "Stanford is industry-friendly, encouraging commercialization, basically making things...
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Donna Hamlin, an executive coach on how to be a better leader in neurotech
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is a corporate executive with thirty years of corporate, governance and strategy consulting experience. She oversees ’s global programs, including its centers and their services. These include: board evaluations, professional certification and training, its global registry of qualified directors, Board Bona Fide®, its strategic partnership programs and its Boardwise center. Top 3 Takeaways "It's really important to know that if we want to be good at our work, then we've got to explore things outside of our normal swim lanes. And when we do that, it gives us a different view or...
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David McMullen of NIH on Blueprint Medtech, the program to help neurotech companies grow
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
is the program officer at the in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They are launching the NIH Blueprint Medtech (links below) which aims to help incubate growing neurotech companies go from Bench to Bedside. Top 3 Takeaways "We're funding individual projects and trying to help groups in the past have struggled... to get funding and to get all the way to in human trials. The Blueprint Medtech resource is meant to derisk later investment and grants for companies "We saw some great programs... having difficulty when they come in - Can we decrease the activation...
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Jon Speer on how Quality Management Software for Medtech companies raised $120 Million
Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions
Jon is the founder of (quality management software exclusively for medical device companies) & a medical device guru with nearly 20 years industry experience. Jon knows the best medical device companies in the world use quality as an accelerator. That's why he created Greenlight Guru to help companies move beyond compliance to True Quality. Top 3 Takeaways If it isn't documented, it didn't happen. One particular audit didn't take four days. It took two days because the Greenlight system made it so much simpler. Greenlight Guru also has an academy to teach people about the...
info_outlineBimal Lakhani is the Vice President of Product Development at HealthTech Connex and NeuroCatch, a recent startup targeting the analytics of brain disorder diagnosis and improvements. He is also Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Science. This conversation talks about the company, science behind it and where it is going in the future.
Takeaways:
We currently do not have a quick mechanism to check out brain health.
Clinical interfaces need to intuitive and easy to use for the clinician.
How is your brain today? Can we bring people to check their brain health like they check their smartphone?
[0:00] Jen French from Neurotech Reports kicks off the introductions on the RehabWeek exhibit floor.
[0:33] Bimal Lakhani describes the new venture of NeuroCatch to meet the need to get a comprehensive matrix of the brain in the clinical setting, in otherwords the “vital signs” of the brain.
[2:33] Lakhani talks about the NeuroCatch platform technology as a neurodiagnostic tool and their strategy for hardware industry partnerships.
[3:33] Description of the target areas for NeuroCatch and the gap in clinical need and the focus of their current research including concussion and other brain injuries.
[5:04] How is your brain doing today? Lakhani also describes the device and what it does.
[7:08] The walk-through of the software tool interface for an EEG evaluation and the keep it simple approach.
[11:19] The NeuroCatch device is approved for clinical use in Canada. Lakhani describes the other markets on their radar.
[11:53] Discussion of data collection and cybersecurity along with their relationship with clinical partners.
[1:26] What is the target market for the MyndTec neural re-education device? Plymale also talks about their pursuit for clinical partners, their strategic focus and the economics of the medical device as an early stage venture.
[12:36] Description of HeuroCanada partnership and clinical adoption in rehabilitation setting. He also talks about the parent company, HealthTech Connex, and their relationship with Helius Medical.
[14:25] Lakhani discusses the next steps for NeuroCatch and their future focus for people to be conscious of their brain health.