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Merck

Altoida raises further $14 million to “democratize digital cognitive assessment at scale” via augmented reality (AR) and AI

April 6, 2022 by SharpBrains

Altoi­da snags Mer­ck KGaA-led $14M fund­ing round for Alzheimer’s diag­nos­tic app (Fierce Biotech):

The $14 mil­lion top-up came from a mix of old and new investors, co-led by White­cap Ven­ture Part­ners and Mer­ck KGaA’s cor­po­rate VC arm, M Ven­tures, which also led the ini­tial tranche of series A financ­ing … The new­ly upsized fund­ing will help Altoi­da add to its work­force, pay for intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty and reg­u­la­to­ry fil­ings and con­tin­ue devel­op­ing its tech plat­form to assess neu­ro­log­i­cal func­tion. [Read more…] about Altoi­da rais­es fur­ther $14 mil­lion to “democ­ra­tize dig­i­tal cog­ni­tive assess­ment at scale” via aug­ment­ed real­i­ty (AR) and AI

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Altoida, assessment, brain health, cognitive decline, digital cognitive assessment, eye-tracking, hand and gait errors, M Ventures, Merck, neurocognitive, neurocognitive assessment, neurological function, pupil dilation

Brainy Innovation Tips from Edward Kliphuis, Investment Director with Merck Ventures

August 1, 2017 by Alvaro Fernandez

Edward Kli­phuis

Ques­tion: Edward, please share 1–2 major brain health needs you observe right now whose solu­tion demands a cre­ative and sig­nif­i­cant tech-enabled innovation.

Answer: We need to tar­get depres­sion, stress and fatigue in a quan­tifi­able man­ner (ie. no well­ness-like claims, but real data sup­port­ing an improve­ment in the afore­men­tioned indi­ca­tions). Treat­ments and ear­ly detec­tion too.

Also, ways  to mon­i­tor lon­gi­tu­di­nal cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties (ie. per­son-spe­cif­ic brain func­tion over the course of a num­ber of years). Done on a wider pop­u­la­tion this could pro­vide insights into the impact of cer­tain exter­nal fac­tors such as food, air qual­i­ty, etc.

 

Ques­tion: And what advice would you give an entre­pre­neur launch­ing an inno­va­tion to address those needs–for the approach to be suc­cess­ful and sustainable?

Answer: Focus on the right mod­el from day one: You need to iden­ti­fy right away the best approach for the oppor­tu­ni­ty at hand — for exam­ple, reg­u­lat­ed med­ical approach vs. gen­er­al well­ness? Both are viable but going from unreg­u­lat­ed to reg­u­lat­ed is hard­ly pos­si­ble where­as the oppo­site is viable (although cre­ates a risk of off-label use…)

 

– Edward Kli­phuis is an Invest­ment Direc­tor with Mer­ck Ven­tures BV, the Cor­po­rate Ven­ture Cap­i­tal arm of Mer­ck KGaA, Darm­stadt, Ger­many. He is respon­si­ble for the New Busi­ness­es fund, which invests glob­al­ly in trans­for­ma­tion­al ideas dri­ven by great entre­pre­neurs. The New Busi­ness­es fund seeks to invest in strate­gic oppor­tu­ni­ties beyond Merck’s cur­rent busi­ness­es, make cross over invest­ments between busi­ness­es and invest in dig­i­ti­za­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties. The total vol­ume of the cor­po­rate ven­ture fund is €300 mil­lion. He will serve as a Judge in the first Brainnova­tions Pitch Con­test host­ed by the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th, 2017).

– Brain­no­va­tions Judg­ing Panel

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: brain conference, Brain-health, brain-performance, cognitive-abilities, depression, entrepreneur, fatigue, innovation, Merck, Merck Ventures, Stress

5 Facts You Need To Know To Understand, Navigate And Enjoy The Digital Brain Health Revolution

April 12, 2017 by Alvaro Fernandez

—

Hun­dreds of com­pa­nies around the globe, now includ­ing Elon Musk’s Neu­ralink and even Face­book,  are research­ing and devel­op­ing new ways to help brain own­ers be smarter, sharp­er, and healthier.

What explains this flur­ry of activ­i­ty? Where may it be headed?

To help you under­stand what’s going on, let me high­light five key facts that emerged from the recent Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit.

 

Fact 1. There are 7.5 billion human brains out there, and everyone needs help

Con­sid­er all unmet needs derived from the tra­di­tion­al phar­ma-exclu­sive approach to brain health.

Learn­ing and cog­ni­tive dis­abil­i­ties in chil­dren are grow­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly, from ADHD and OCD, to autism. The relat­ed emo­tion­al and eco­nom­ic bur­den is sub­stan­tial — yet, over 60–70% of those with treat­ment have poor out­comes, and many who need help don’t get any.

Glob­al­ly, around 350 mil­lion peo­ple suf­fer from depres­sion. Add to that sub­stance abuse, and we are talk­ing hun­dreds of mil­lions of peo­ple with­out prop­er care and very high relapse rates for the lucky ones get­ting help.

Con­cus­sions and brain impair­ments per­vade through mil­lions of vet­er­ans and high-con­tact sports prac­ti­tion­ers, yet diag­no­sis and treat­ments are elusive.

And let’s not for­get the per­fect­ly healthy. [Read more…] about 5 Facts You Need To Know To Under­stand, Nav­i­gate And Enjoy The Dig­i­tal Brain Health Revolution

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Akili, Baycrest, Brain-health, BrainHQ, Claritas Mindsciences, Click Therapeutics, cogmed, Cogniciti, cognifit, digital health, Educational Testing Service, Elon Musk, Facebook, Headspace, IBM Watson, Interaxon, Jazz Ventures, Lumosity, Merck, Merck Ventures, MindMaze, Muse, MyndYou, Neuralink, neuroplasticity, Neuropsychology, neurotech­nolo­gies, neurotech­nolo­gy, NIMH, Pear Therapeutics, Pearson, RehaCom, SBT Group, sharpbrains, UT-Dallas, World-Economic-Forum

Four reasons the future of brain health is digital, pervasive and bright

February 15, 2017 by Alvaro Fernandez

—

Hun­dreds of com­pa­nies and sci­ence labs around the globe are research­ing the inner work­ings of the human brain and mind, and devel­op­ing new ways to help brain own­ers be smarter, sharp­er, and health­i­er for longer.

What explains this flur­ry of activ­i­ty? [Read more…] about Four rea­sons the future of brain health is dig­i­tal, per­va­sive and bright

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Akili, Baycrest, Brain-health, BrainHQ, Claritas Mindsciences, Click Therapeutics, cogmed, Cogniciti, cognifit, digital health, Educational Testing Service, Headspace, IBM Watson, Interaxon, Jazz Ventures, Lumosity, Merck, Merck Ventures, MindMaze, Muse, MyndYou, neuroplasticity, Neuropsychology, neurotech­nolo­gies, neurotech­nolo­gy, NIMH, Pear Therapeutics, Pearson, RehaCom, SBT Group, sharpbrains, UT-Dallas, World-Economic-Forum

Survey of key scientific, technological and investment trends revolutionizing Brain Health in our Digital Age

January 23, 2017 by Apoorv Mathur

—–

Last year I got very inter­est­ed in the func­tion­ing of the human brain and the sci­ence behind mind­ful­ness and learn­ing [1], so was quite excit­ed  to attend the Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit [2] in Decem­ber, indulging in the lat­est trends in applied neu­ro­science and dig­i­tal innovation.

The Sum­mit focused on the theme of rein­vent­ing brain health in the dig­i­tal age, and brought togeth­er lead­ing researchers, entre­pre­neurs, financiers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers pas­sion­ate with the mis­sion of mov­ing neu­ro­science and cog­ni­tive research from sci­ence labs towards appli­ca­tions in Health, Well­ness and Edu­ca­tion. Here’s a sum­ma­ry of the many things I dis­cov­ered. [Read more…] about Sur­vey of key sci­en­tif­ic, tech­no­log­i­cal and invest­ment trends rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing Brain Health in our Dig­i­tal Age

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: addiction, adhd, aging, Akili Interactive Labs, anxiety, Applied Neuroscience, autism. Autism Spectrum disorder, Baycrest, Behavior Imaging Solutions, Big-Pharma, blood-flow, Brain-health, brain-injury, Bridge Builders Collaborative, CC-ABHI, Claritas, Cogito, Cogniciti, cognitive, cognitive disabilities, cognitive therapeutics, cognitive-decline, Cognitive-functions, Cognitive-impairment, concussions, dementia, depression, digital, digital age, digital brain health, digital health, digital innovation, eMindful, entrepreneurs, FDA-approved, Fourth Industrial Revolution, frontal-lobes, gamification, Happify, Headspace, human-brain, Interaxon, investors, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Jazz Ventures, Johnson & Johnson, Learning, lifespan, McKesson, Mental-Health, Merck, Merck Ventures, mind training, mindfulness, MindMaze, NIMH, OCD, Pear Therapeutics, PTSD, SBIR, sharpbrains, Stress, STTR, substance-abuse, UT-Dallas, virtual-reality, World-Economic-Forum, Xhale

Update: 20 Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

June 30, 2016 by SharpBrains

brain-woman—–

Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter,  pro­vid­ing a win­dow into the ongo­ing brain health and neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty revolutions–plus some fun brain teasers. Hap­py read­ing and, for those of you in the USA, Hap­py Fourth of July, and for those of you in Cana­da, Hap­py Cana­da Day!

New research:

  • 20 Must-Know Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and Improve Brain Health
  • Please par­tic­i­pate in this Brain Health sur­vey (should take no more than 5 min­utes, and will help us to bet­ter under­stand and address your inter­ests and needs)
  • Which is the only com­mon leisure activ­i­ty that has been asso­ci­at­ed with reduced cog­ni­tive function?
  • Next phase in the brain health rev­o­lu­tion: Objec­tive, phys­i­o­log­i­cal, and wide­spread mea­sures of brain function
  • Wis­dom requires both high­er heart rate vari­abil­i­ty and adopt­ing a third-per­son perspective

New tools:

  • Mer­ck and HAP­PYneu­ron part­ner to include cog­ni­tive reme­di­a­tion pro­gram in Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis e‑Health Solution
  • Too ear­ly? Brain stim­u­la­tion device Thync fails to get trac­tion in the minds of consumers
  • Nike launch­es men­tal train­ing app to help soc­cer play­ers win the men­tal game
  • Sport-spe­cif­ic brain train­ing pro­grams gain adop­tion in bas­ket­ball, ice hock­ey and soccer

New thinking:

  • Three neu­ro­sci­en­tists win $1 mil­lion Kavli Prize for dis­cov­er­ing brain’s plasticity
  • Dr. Michael Merzenich: To har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, we need to think “Fit­ness” more than “Games”
  • Save the Date: Rein­vent­ing Brain Health at 2016 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit (Decem­ber 6–8, 2016) (10%-off dis­count code: sharp2016)
  • 5 ideas to help knowl­edge work­ers increase life­long learn­ing and productivity

Finally, some brain teasers:

  • 3 fun brain teasers for adults to chal­lenge your cog­ni­tive skills

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: brain, brain e-newsletter, brain health enewsletter, Brain Teasers, Brain-health, brain-stimulation, Brain-Training, cognitive remediation, cognitive-enhancement, cognitive-function, cognitive-skills, happyneuron, heart-rate-variability, Merck, neuroplasticity, Nike+, sports, wisdom

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