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BIOS HEALTH RECEIVES $100K AWARD FROM SPARC-NIH NEUROMOD PRIZE

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Cambridge, UK & Montreal, CA – 13 July 2022 – BIOS, a pioneer in the development of AI-driven neural therapeutics, has received a $100,000 award from phase 1 of the Neuromod Prize. The prize is a SPARC (Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions) initiative from the US NIH (National Institutes of Health) Common Fund. The competition seeks to reward and spur the development of neuromodulation solutions that can independently regulate two or more desired autonomic functions without unintended effects. In early 2021, SPARC awarded BIOS a $1.4 million grant to efficiently explore neuromodulation parameters to help accelerate the development of neural treatments for chronic disease, using BIOS’ unique neural biomarker technology. This independent competition win further validates BIOS' Autonomic Therapy Initiative (ATI) and its position as leaders in the development of Neural Digital Therapies – a new class of therapeutics for the treatment of chronic diseases.


To win the Phase 1 prize, participants had to submit concept papers describing the proposed therapeutic approach and plans for conducting proof-of-concept studies. Phase 1 winners are selected as quarterfinalists and will exclusively be eligible to participate in the planned Phase 2 of the competition, for a total prize pool of up to $4 million. The BIOS submission titled “BIOS Autonomic Therapy Initiative: data-driven optimization of vagal nerve stimulation” describes existing results about selectivity of stimulation effects where neural and physiological data were used to guide stimulation. Also described, was the expected development of ATI over the next 2-3 years.

 

BIOS Chief Scientific Officer Oliver Armitage explained “The therapeutic approach involves stimulating the vagus nerve while recording from nearby neural and physiological tissues to optimise the stimulations for the patient and their disease. Stimulation patterns can be determined in real time using sophisticated machine learning techniques to interpret biomarkers and guide stimulation. We have shown in a live surgery that this technique can quickly achieve personalised stimulation parameters that maximise therapeutic mechanism engagement and minimise side effects for heart failure. In the past year, over three thousand stimulation combinations have been tested, recorded and analysed for different subjects, generating a sizeable database used to establish correlations and causal relationships.” He continues:

Au cours de la dernière décennie, l’interface neuronale directe s’est imposé comme un complément viable, et bien souvent comme une alternative supérieure, aux interventions cliniques traditionnelles », a déclaré le Dr Guillaume Lajoie, professeur adjoint, Mathématiques appliquées, Université de Montréal. « La prochaine décennie devrait voir l’utilisation de cette nouvelle classe de traitements changer de paradigme, et BIOS est stratégiquement positionné pour relever les défis qui freinent ce progrès. Je suis extrêmement enthousiaste à l’idée de faire équipe avec les personnes talentueuses de BIOS et de tirer parti des techniques d’IA de pointe pour jeter les bases des normes d’interfaçage neuronal. 

GUILLAUME LAJOIE PhD
PROFESSEUR ADJOINT, MATHÉMATIQUES APPLIQUÉES

UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL

About BIOS Health

BIOS is unlocking the potential of the nervous system in treating chronic disease by using AI-powered neural interfaces that can automatically read and write neural signals. The human nervous system carries vast quantities of data and scientists have long known that faulty signals in the nervous system play a key role in driving chronic diseases. By understanding and correcting these signals in real time, BIOS can treat chronic illnesses in an effective, automated, and personalised way. BIOS has leveraged recent breakthroughs in AI and Machine Learning to translate the “language” of the nervous system for the first time. BIOS’ neural code is built on the world’s largest proprietary neural data set and is already in use clinically to enhance data from wearables used in remote chronic disease care.

Co-founded by Cambridge University graduates Emil Hewage, a computational neuroscientist, and Oliver Armitage, a biomechanical engineer, BIOS is made up of a wide range of experts from neuroscience, machine learning, software engineering, applied biomaterials, biotechnology, and medicine. The combined experience of the BIOS team extends to over 300 peer-reviewed publications, 10+ First of kind medical devices and 6k+ clinical procedures.
 

Media contact

Colette Cooley 

Marketing & Communications Executive

BIOS Health 

media@bios.health 

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