Grey Matter Neurosciences secures $14M for Alzheimer's Disease

The funds will be used to develop an ultrasound headset in clinical trials for people with Alzheimer's Disease.
By Anthony Vecchione
01:56 pm
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  Photo: SeventyFour/Getty Images

Neurotechnology company, Grey Matter Neurosciences, announced it secured $14 million in seed financing, which will be used to develop an ultrasound headset for individuals with Alzheimer's disease and test that device in clinical trials.

The financing was led by the Wittington Innovation Fund, with participation from Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners, Ontario Brain Institute and Ontario's Life Sciences Innovation Fund.

The company also announced that it has licensed advanced focused ultrasound technology developed at Sunnybrook Research Institute. 

WHAT IT DOES

Grey Matter Neurosciences develops portable ultrasound helmet technology aimed at empowering seniors to restore brain function.

The company offers focused ultrasound technology for neuromodulation, with the aim of allowing seniors with Alzheimer's disease to experience enhanced brain-function recovery.

In a statement, the company said its offerings are based on transcranial focused-ultrasound technology, which was invented by Kullervo Hynynen at Sunnybrook Research Institute.

The seed funding will support advanced research on focused ultrasound neuromodulation. The company will construct an ultrasound headset for Alzheimer's patients and perform clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and feasibility of the technology.

Investigators will also analyze the ability of the transcranial focused-ultrasound device to sustainably improve cognitive performance, including memory.

"Generally speaking, there are no marketed therapies that can significantly and sustainably enhance cognitive function in individuals with dementia," Jeffrey Coull, founder and CEO of Grey Matter, said in a statement.

"I believe that our technology, which can reach the deepest recesses of the brain that control memory and learning, holds massive potential to boost cognition and, more generally, revolutionize how Alzheimer's and other diseases of the brain are treated."

The company also announced that Jim Orlando, managing partner of Wittington Ventures; Lara O'Donnell, executive director of the Weston Family Foundation; and Andy Smith, president and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre would join the company's board of directors. 

In addition, Parimal Nathwani, president and CEO of Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners, will serve as a board observer.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Other companies in this space include Soterix Medical, which offers stimulation and synergistic monitoring technologies. In 2024, the company received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring (IOM) system.

MEGA-IOM provides integrated control of the central and peripheral nervous systems to reduce postoperative risk and improve surgical outcomes. ­

Also in 2024, CNS disease-focused NaviFUS entered into an agreement with Bracco, a company that markets ultrasound imaging agents, to enhance the NaviFUS system's capability to open the blood-brain barrier for the treatment of brain cancers and neurological diseases. 

That same year, Sonic Concepts, a noninvasive therapeutic ultrasound platform, acquired the exclusive worldwide perpetual license for ultrasound neuromodulation patents from private neurotechnology company IST. The portfolio contains inventions and patents from Arizona State University that include discoveries of using low-intensity ultrasound for neuromodulation.

Carthera, a clinical-stage medtech company, focuses on developing innovative ultrasound-based medical devices to treat a wide range of brain disorders. SonoCloud is a medical device developed by Carthera that emits ultrasound to temporarily increase the permeability of the blood vessels in the brain to improve the delivery of therapeutic molecules.

In 2024, Carthera launched a Phase 2a clinical trial. The Northwestern University-sponsored trial used Carthera’s SonoCloud-9 device with Agenus’ checkpoint inhibitors balstilimab and botensilimab in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM) who have completed radiotherapy.

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