Brainnovations

What’s normal? When it comes to the brain, it’s hard to say, and that’s why we need to study global neurodiversity

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In a small vil­lage in India—a place so remote it has no elec­tric­i­ty, no telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tem, and no cars or buses—a research work­er pre­pares to place an EEG head­set on a female villager’s head. The woman, who earns $3.75 a day labor­ing in a near­by rice pad­dy and who has nev­er ven­tured out­side her vil­lage, eyes the futur­is­tic device with trepidation.

“Is it going to hurt my head?” she asks.

Sathish, the research work­er, has heard this ques­tion before. In fact, he’s heard sev­er­al sim­i­lar queries from anx­ious vil­lagers who have got­ten scared when they saw the brainwear.

“Will it give me a headache?”

“Is it going to give me an elec­tric shock?”

He assures the woman the head­set is pain­less and explains that all she has to do is sit qui­et­ly and allow her mind to wan­der. Sathish gen­tly adjusts an array of elec­trodes on the woman’s head and [Read more…] about What’s nor­mal? When it comes to the brain, it’s hard to say, and that’s why we need to study glob­al neurodiversity

Top Brainnovations to monitor and improve Brain Health

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Hop­ing you enjoy this slid­edeck sup­port­ing the fas­ci­nat­ing Brainnova­tions Pitch Con­test held dur­ing the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health (March 7–9th).  Full record­ings are avail­able for pur­chase here.

Giv­en the suc­cess of the first Brainnova­tions Pitch Con­test in 2017 (details here), the 2019 Sum­mit host­ed a sec­ond Brainnova­tions edi­tion for select­ed star­tups to pitch their inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to  Sum­mit par­tic­i­pants and to our dis­tin­guished Judges — our very own “Sharp Tank.”  

1–2.30pm. Top Brainnova­tions to mon­i­tor and improve Brain Health 

  • Final­ist: Kate Sharadin, Founder & CEO of eQui­l­i­ty
  • Final­ist: Nick­o­lai Vysokov,  Co-Founder & CEO of Brain­Patch
  • WINNER: Richard Han­bury, Founder & CEO of Sana Health
  • Judged by: Alexan­dra More­house, Chief Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer at Ban­ner Health; Dr. Robert Bilder, Chief of Med­ical Psy­chol­o­gy-Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy at UCLA; Elan Tye, Investor at JAZZ Ven­ture Part­ners; Dr. Evian Gor­don, Founder, Chair­man and CMO of Total Brain; Dr. Hag­it Alon, VP Sci­en­tif­ic Affairs at Joy Ven­tures; John Cam­mack, Angel Investor; Kath­leen Herath, Vice Pres­i­dent Health & Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty at Nation­wide Insurance

Final 24 Hours for Brain Health Start-ups to Submit Pitches @ 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit

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Heads-up: The Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Con­test, to be host­ed at the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit, will high­light 8 star­tups world­wide work­ing on ways to har­ness brain research and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies to help every per­son thrive in the dig­i­tal age.

Star­tups sub­mit their ideas and solu­tions to pitch in front of our expert Judges and Sum­mit par­tic­i­pants for a chance to get feed­back, boost indus­try recog­ni­tion and win a prize pack­age that could give a boost to their ven­ture and solu­tion. The peri­od for sub­mis­sions is open till Thurs­day, May 2nd, and the Final­ists will be announced on Fri­day, May 3rd.

You can learn more about the first edi­tion of the Brainnova­tions Pitch Con­test and about the upcom­ing sec­ond Brainnova­tions edi­tion — check page for Guide­lines, FAQs and Sub­mis­sion Form.

We’re look­ing for­ward to hear­ing about many inno­v­a­tive ideas, prod­ucts and services!

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Learn More & Register:

2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health (May 7–9th)

–-This will be the Brain­no­va­tions Judg­ing Panel…our very own “Sharp Tank”

Sanofi Ventures leads $17M investment in Click Therapeutics, finalist @ 2017 Brainnovations Pitch Contest

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Sanofi Backs Click Ther­a­peu­tics as Dig­i­tal Med­i­cines Gain Momen­tum (Xcon­o­my):

“Drug mak­ers are mak­ing more bets on the nascent field of dig­i­tal med­i­cine. The lat­est exam­ple: Click Ther­a­peu­tics announced Mon­day that it grabbed a $17 mil­lion invest­ment led by Sanofi Ven­tures, the Cam­bridge, MA-based ven­ture cap­i­tal arm of the French phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal giant. [Read more…] about Sanofi Ven­tures leads $17M invest­ment in Click Ther­a­peu­tics, final­ist @ 2017 Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Contest

Update: Study finds continued birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) well into our 70s

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Time for Sharp­Brains eNewslet­ter, bring­ing you the lat­est in in brain health and men­tal health research, tools and thinking.

Also, a quick heads-up for those based in the UK: the Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Cen­tre for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy will host a keynote by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez in Lon­don on Wednes­day, May 30th, titled Why the Future of Brain Enhance­ment & Men­tal Health is Dig­i­tal & Per­va­sive (free; requires reg­is­tra­tion). Oth­er upcom­ing events here.

New research:

New tools:

New thinking:

 

Final­ly, please Save the Date for the sec­ond edi­tion of the Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Con­test on Decem­ber 5th, 2018. Giv­en the suc­cess of the inau­gur­al event last year (details here), the 2018 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit will host a sec­ond con­test for 12 star­tups to pitch their inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to all Sum­mit par­tic­i­pants and to dis­tin­guished Judges –our very own “Sharp Tank.”

Have a great month of May,

The Sharp­Brains Team

–- Mem­bers of the Brain­no­va­tions Judg­ing Panel

Save the Date for Brainnovations Pitch Contest on December 5th

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Giv­en the suc­cess of the first Brainnova­tions Pitch Con­test last year (details here), the 2018 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit will host a sec­ond Brainnova­tions edi­tion, for 12 select­ed star­tups to pitch their inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to to all Sum­mit par­tic­i­pants and to our dis­tin­guished Judges –our very own “Sharp Tank”:

  • Dr. Hag­it Alon, VP Sci­en­tif­ic Affairs at Joy Ven­tures
  • Dr. David Barash, Chief Med­ical Offi­cer at the GE Foun­da­tion
  • Nichol Brad­ford, Co-Founder and ED of the Trans­for­ma­tive Tech Lab
  • John Cam­mack, Angel Investor
  • Ariel Garten, Founder and Chief Evan­ge­lism Offi­cer at Inter­aX­on
  • Dr. Evian Gor­don, Exec­u­tive Chair­man of Brain Resource
  • Dr. Adam Haim, Chief of the Small Busi­ness Inno­va­tion Research (SBIR) and Small Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Trans­fer (STTR) Pro­grams at the Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health (NIMH)
  • Kath­leen Herath, Asso­ciate Vice Pres­i­dent Health & Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty at Nation­wide Insurance
  • Chris­t­ian Her­nan­dez, Man­ag­ing Part­ner at White Star Capital
  • Dr. Edward Kli­phuis, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Mer­ck Ventures
  • Dr. Cori Lath­an, Co-Chair of the World Eco­nom­ic Forum’s Coun­cil on the Future of Human Enhancement
  • Dr. Manuel López-Figueroa, Ven­ture Part­ner at Bay City Capital
  • Zack Lynch, Gen­er­al Part­ner at JAZZ Ven­ture Partners
  • Dr. Eddie Mar­tuc­ci, Co-Founder and CEO of Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs
  • Dr. Karen Postal, Pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy (AACN)
  • Yan­nick Roy, Co-Founder of Neu­roTechX

We’ll announce more details by July 2nd, 2018. In the mean­time you can learn more here, here and here.

–-This will be the Brain­no­va­tions Judg­ing Panel…our very own “Sharp Tank”