First published: 22nd March 2024

Funded by a nearly £1M (~$1.25M USD) grant, this research will enable development and validation of an artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic tool that improves the accuracy of blood biomarkers.

Cumulus Neuroscience today announced receipt of a grant from the Innovate UK Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI).

The SBRI grant will enable Cumulus to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) diagnostic algorithms focused on improving the accuracy of blood biomarkers. These new tools will combine blood biomarkers with digital biomarkers – direct measures of brain function leveraging the Cumulus Neuroassessment Platform – and demographic information. The combination of these data will provide a more complete picture of a patient’s brain pathophysiology and help to identify which features are most critical for confirming an Alzheimer’s dementia diagnosis. Cumulus will test and validate these new algorithms on two real-world data sets from ongoing Cumulus-sponsored dementia studies.

“Today, most AI development is focused on text, speech or images,” said Brian Murphy, PhD, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Cumulus. “With this SBRI grant, Cumulus will break new ground by bringing the same level of power to neurofunctional data, neurobiological data, and cognitive performance. Our goal is to produce a sensitive and accurate AI diagnostic tool that will allow clinicians to make better decisions about a patient's care and help biopharma companies choose the right patients for drug trials, expediting approval of more effective therapies.”

The Cumulus Neuroassessment Platform – which includes a first-in-class FDA-cleared and UKCA-marked dry electrode electroencephalogram (EEG) headset – can track the integrity and connectivity of brain networks. This sophisticated headset synchronizes with tablet-based assessments across multiple domains of brain function for use in-clinic or remotely at-home, allowing for an increased ease-of-use for patients, caregivers, and clinical teams.

“Validating AI tools for brain health represents a major step forward for better diagnostics and faster clinical trials for dementia,” said Dr. James Rowe, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the University of Cambridge, and Chief Investigator on CNS-101. “The brain is complex – new AI tools are needed to see through the complexity to enable discovery and insight.”

Alzheimer's is a progressive disease that affects brain function, memory, and other cognitive abilities. It is the most common cause of dementia, affecting millions of people worldwide. Symptoms usually develop slowly and worsen over time, including memory loss, confusion, mood swings, changes in behavior and personality, and difficulty with language and communication. Currently, there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s. Today, earlier diagnosis can enable patients to make lifestyle changes, including exercising and decreasing alcohol consumption, both of which have been shown to slow disease progression. In the future, having the ability to diagnose patients earlier may expedite enrollment in clinical studies and the identification of new treatments.

Cumulus supports precision in CNS clinical trials for its industry partners by enabling remote monitoring of patients across multiple domains of brain function. To learn more, visit www.cumulusneuro.com.

With a mission to generate the data and insights required to accelerate diagnosis and management of central nervous system (CNS) disorders for millions of patients and caregivers around the world, Cumulus Neuroscience is advancing an AI-based, multi-domain digital biomarker platform to enable better, faster decision making in neurology and neuropsychiatry clinical trials and patient care. Designed for and with 10 of the world's leading pharma companies, the platform enables decentralized trials, and is already making a difference in the development of therapies for Alzheimer's Disease, depression, and schizophrenia.

Designed to provide an industry-wide standard for real-world measurement of disease progression, Cumulus combines patented technology, in-house expertise, and key industry partnerships to capture large amounts of real-world, clinical data repeated over time, across multiple behavioral and physiological domains in the patient's home – all with an EEG headset synced to a novel, tablet-based neuroassessment platform. Together with machine learning (ML) analytics and the world's largest database of annotated, longitudinal, neurofunctional data, Cumulus simplifies and improves the robustness of neuroscience clinical trials to provide the best and most cost-effective assessment of CNS treatment outcomes.

The Company is supported by highly experienced specialized investors, DDF/SV Health Investors, LifeArc and Future Fund, and a world-class Scientific and Technical Advisory Board.