The funding is from MEDTEQ+ (the Pan-Canadian Consortium for Industrial Research and Innovation in Medical Technology), with the support of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Quebec (MEI), Mitacs Accelerate and the Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives program at McGill University.
In 2020, BIOS initiated the groundbreaking CA$800,000 research partnership with Mila, McGill University and the Université de Montréal, to develop an AI-controlled closed-loop neuromodulation system for chronic cardiac conditions. Today, the new project worth CA$1.8 million will build upon existing collaborative work and will go further in the research into neuro-cardiac control.
Emil Hewage, CEO, BIOS Health said “This new funding is further validation of the great results and progress we’ve been making in our ATI programme. We have a talented team of neuroscientists and engineers, and we’re really looking forward to the next stage -which will take us right up to the point of clinical trials in humans.”
The BIOS team will continue to collaborate with Dr. Blake Richards, Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science, McGill University and Dr. Guillaume Lajoie, Assistant Professor, Applied Mathematics, Université de Montréal in conducting this research. The aim of which, will be to use AI to preferentially modulate cardiac function while reducing side effects on other organs; culminating in a technology that improves patient outcomes in a clinical setting.
Dr. Lajoie explains, "Our growing understanding of the link between neural- and bio-markers makes it abundantly clear that the future of many clinical interventions will include neural interfacing. This will enable patients to receive second-by-second personalized treatments - informed by the interactions between neural and physiological activity (e.g. heart rate), decoded by Machine Learning. The outcome will be higher response rates, fewer side effects compared to pharmaceutical interventions, and more targeted treatments for patients. In short, this has the potential to massively impact chronic disease rates globally, as well as the cost of treatment. I am excited to work in collaboration with the BIOS team to address the exciting ML challenges surrounding this technology."
“Our growing understanding of the link between neural- and bio-markers makes it abundantly clear that the future of many clinical interventions will include neural interfacing. This will enable patients to receive second-by-second personalized treatments… In short, this has the potential to massively impact chronic disease rates globally, as well as the cost of treatment.” Said Guillaume Lajoie, Assistant Professor, Applied Mathematics, Université De Montréal
The partnership with Mila will work to optimise the system to decode and encode the signals from the brain to the body. Its vision for future healthcare is one where patients will have their chronic conditions managed via the nervous system directly by AI – replacing drugs and changing the lives of millions of people. The partnership with Mila will work to optimise the system to decode and encode the signals from the brain to the body. Its vision for future healthcare is one where patients will have their chronic conditions managed via the nervous system directly by AI – replacing drugs and changing the lives of millions of people.
Dr. Richards said, “I’m really excited to be part of this project - we’re pushing the frontier by using machine learning to identify subtle relationships between cardiac activity and the signals that travel between the brain and the body. By building off our previous work in this area and developing techniques that can be tuned for each individual, we’re helping to build a new class of precision treatment for patients with heart disease. Precision is a hurdle many stimulation systems struggle with, but this cutting-edge technology means we are able to take full advantage of the potential for neural interfaces to regulate human physiology for clinical purposes.”
Blake Richards, Assistant Professor, Computer Sciences, McGill University said “Precision is a hurdle many stimulation systems struggle with, but this cutting-edge technology means we are able to take full advantage of the potential for neural interfaces to regulate human physiology for clinical purposes.”
This partnership will enable BIOS to make significant strides in realising its mission by using Machine Learning to link cardiac activity to neural data and identify the neural biomarkers of cardiac activity. These are the building blocks of new treatments. This partnership will enable BIOS to make significant strides in realising its mission by using Machine Learning to link cardiac activity to neural data and identify the neural biomarkers of cardiac activity. These are the building blocks of new treatments.
‘‘For the last ten years, MEDTEQ+ has focused on the acceleration of innovative solutions within the health technology sector. We firmly believe the developments put forward by BIOS can actively improve our community’s quality of life through neural engineering, this support is a statement towards our role as a major hub of the medical technology sector in Canada, integrating leading-edge solutions into the delivery of healthcare.’’ Said Diane Côté, CEO of MEDTEQ+.
