Monthly Archives: January 2022

Ning JiangProfessor, Faculty of Engineering> Director, Waterloo Engineering Bionics Lab> Co-founder and CSO, Brink Bionics

Ning Jiang has an early memory of visiting the hospital where his parents worked in China and seeing someone walking with the aid of a prosthetic. This experience and others he had as the son of two physicians, led Jiang to begin thinking how technology could be used for good. A professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering, Jiang is fascinated with devices and technology that can enhance human health and the way people experience the world around them.

Jiang is also the founder and director of theWaterloo Engineering Bionics Lab, where new interfaces and technologies that augment human capabilities are designed and tested.

My goal is to develop technologies that are easier to use and more accessible, technologies that will allow people to better interact with the external world, especially when there is a medical need but also for productivity and entertainment purposes.

Operating since 2015, research at the Waterloo Engineering Bionics Lab has focused mainly on building assistive and rehabilitation devices for persons with disabilities, such as upper-limb prosthetics or brain-controlled devices that aid stroke victims recovery. Research is also being done in other areas, such as health monitoring, a field of study in which devices provide feedback and data on human cardiac and cognitive stress levels and other measurements.

The bionics labresearchesnon-invasive neuro-signals that can enhance the performance of human-machine interactions. During these interactions, a brain-computer interface (BCI) extracts signals from the brain and immediately communicates to the technology so that it behaves exactly as the user intended. For example, a stroke patient or someone with spinal cord injuries may not be able to move their hands or legs. But the interface translates signals from the patients brain into a machine such as an exoskeleton, allowing the patients hands or legs to move.

Another example is patients with amputations. Using EMG signals from contracting muscles, the technology decodes the patients intention, such as moving a finger, and transmits the results to the prosthetic hand, which then moves exactly as the patient intended. The advantage of using these types of signals is that the technology can easily interpret human intentions. Prosthetics of this type are smoother and more intuitive for patients than typical prosthetics, which only use one set of muscles and require the patient to learn to control those muscles independently.

The development of this neurotechnology led to the founding of the first company out of the Engineering Bionics Lab in 2018.Brink Bionicswas founded by Ning Jiang, along with co-researchers Jiayuan He and Erik Lloyd (MASc19). It began as a bionic arm company, winning theVelocity Fund Pitch Competition,and has leveraged entrepreneurial support offered by theVelocity incubator. The company has since pivoted to use neurotechnology for gaming, filling a gap in the market left by conventional gaming controllers. Their commercial product, the ImpulseNeurocontroller, allows for faster reaction time. The device, which is worn like a glove, uses sensors to interpret the movement intentions of the player before they move, allowing for reaction time that is up to 80 milliseconds faster than mouse-click actions. This increased reaction time provides significant advantages for gamers.

"During my time in the Engineering Bionics Lab, I was encouraged to pursue neurotechnology research that had the potential to impact lives beyond the conventional goals of scientific publications, says Lloyd, CEO of Brink Bionics.

Because of this entrepreneurial attitude, as well as the engineering resources and support made available by the University of Waterloo, we founded Brink Bionics. To date, we have raised close to $500,000 in funding from pitch competitions and venturecapital, andlaunched our first neurotechnology product. We are now in another VC fundraising round to build out the next version of our gaming gear for neuro-enhancement.The company continues to be a means for our team to explore big ideas, as we are developing both implanted and wearable neural interface technologies that will augment the way we interface with devices in every aspect of our lives."

Researcher and Brink Bionics co-founder and CTO, Jiayuan He holdsa smart prosthetic prototype,designed in the Engineering Bionics Lab.

Jiang says filling medical and health-care needs is still the main direction for the Waterloo Engineering Bionics Lab, which partners with Grand River Hospital, McMaster University and the University of Toronto to conduct trials with patients.

Jiang remembers watchingRobocopwhen he was a kid, a science fiction movie that left questions in his mind about the way technology can be used as a force for good or evil. He believes we will see a shift in the next few years in which bionics becomes a regular part of our lives and people increasingly incorporate biotechnologies into their bodies to enhance capabilities.

Right now, things like electronic implants are more in the fringe or subculture of society, he says. But humans will be integrating more technology and bio-machinery to enhance their functionsin the near future. There is a lot of research happening in these areas and advances are being made at a fast pace.

Get updates on the latest research and innovation at the University of Waterloo. From breakthroughs in quantum technology and cybersecurity to leading-edge climate research and innovations in health care, youll get to know some of Waterloos most inspiring minds.

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Neurotech for intuitive human-machine interactions and faster gaming | Waterloo News - uwaterloo.ca

Stryker has stepped away from deals involving the capital equipment and elective procedures space in its latest M&A effort.

The Kalamazoo, MI-based company said it will instead focus on enhancing its digital presence by acquiring Vocera Communications for about $3.09 billion. The deal, which is one of the first billion-dollar medtech acquisitions of 2022, is expected to close in the first quarter. It is also the biggest deal Stryker has been involved with since its $4 billion acquisition of Wright Medical.

San Jose, CA-based Vocera was founded in 2000 and has a portfolio comprised of multiple products including clinical communication, secure text messaging, alarms & notifications, patient experience, and analytics tools.The importance of this growing segment has continued to expand throughout the pandemic as it aims to reduce cognitive overload for caregivers and enables them to deliver the best patient care possible.

During a call discussing the deal, Stryker Chairman and CEO Kevin Lobo spoke about the company focusing on expanding its digital capabilities.

This is not a new trend for us, Lobo said during the call. Weve been focused on digital for probably the last decade. Its been very progressive and every once and awhile we make a step-change by bringing on technology such as Vocera that really propels us to the next level. I would say that we are going to continue. A clear component of our R&D investment will be digital. Everything we launch will have some smart features or some digital components to it on all of our new products.

The timing of the deal couldnt be better said Stryker executives.

Vocera really has hit kind of an inflection point, Lobo said during the call. If you look that [3Q21] EBITA margin, very high profitability in addition to very high growth. Weve liked the asset for at least five years. Weve been in close connection, and weve run alongside Vocera in hospitals. And weve also done a very nice job of delivering on the Wright [Medical] acquisition, so were now in a position where we can actually financially do this deal. So, its a combination of our ability to generate cash and pay down the Wright debt and with the growth [Vocera] has experienced themselves, the stars have aligned for this to be a great time to do this [deal]. Vocera is really starting to take off and we think were going to help accelerate that.

Ryan Zimmerman, a BTIG analyst, commented about the timing in a research note.

Strykers expansion into digital communications comes at a time when health systems are overburdened and under-staffed, Zimmerman wrote. Vocera addresses these issues through connected platforms and care coordination but over time we expect the Vocera products to integrate with Strykers acute care products to offer customers a more seamless experience.

Strykers potential acquisition of Vocera is similar to Hillroms 2019 acquisition of Voalte, Mike Matson, a Needham & Company analyst wrote. (Editors Note: Hillrom was acquired by Baxter in 2021 for about $12.4 billion. That deal helped strengthen Deerfield, IL-based Baxters digital presence.)

The deal would also be beneficial to Vocera because it would help the company reach a virtually untapped market outside of the U.S.

We really do see as part of our deal thesis international being an important part of future value for the acquisition,said Andy Pierce is Group President, MedSurg and Neurotechnology. [Vocera] has a generally smaller presence today in international markets. We sell in about 10 markets today and its roughly 10% of the overall business of Vocera, so you can imagine if 90% of the business is done in the U.S., well have a really strong upside to expand through our very capable, very competent, medical organization and all of the Stryker relationships that exist with international customers.

Although this is a sizeable deal, Stryker executives did not rule out the potential for tuck-in deals in the future. About four years ago, the company employed the strategy of focusing on tuck-in deals to enhance its growth. In this time Stryker acquired companies like Entellus Medical, SafeAir AG, and Invuity, just to name a few.

We will preserve the right to do very small tuck-in deals, just like the discipline we showed following the Wright Medical acquisition, where we deleveraged very significantly, Lobo said. So, we will continue to be looking at small tuck-ins across the whole portfolio of Stryker.

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Stryker Takes the Digital Route with New M&A - Medical Device and Diagnostics Industry

Look into my eyes. What do you see? the man says to his wife.

I see Parkinsons, Alzheimers and MS, she replies.

Not the most romantic interchange.

But imagine if gazing into someones eyes were the key to diagnosing neurological disorders, which are the worlds leading cause of disabilityand cost some $800 billion a year in direct treatment expenses.

The correlations between oculometrics (the biometric measurement of the movement and condition of the eyes) and neurological conditions is a much-researched area of study, with over 750 papers published in journals such as The Lancet, Nature and Neurology.

Developing a technology that can decode the data from the eyes has proven to be challenging, however. No one has successfully made strides toward commercializing an oculometric approach.

Until now.

In October 2021, Tel Aviv and Austin, Texas-based startup Neuralight launched out of stealth with a $5.5 million seed investment and a goal of digitizing and even automating neurological evaluation and care.

You can only improve what you can measure

Neurological exams have traditionally relied on a subjective, manual assessment of symptoms.

The physician will ask 50 questions, like how hard is it to button your shirt? Or the doctor asks the patient to walk across the room so they can assess their gait, explains Neuralight CEO Micah Breakstone.

The lack of objective criteria has prevented pharmaceutical companies from developing effective drugs. Breakstone notes that for dementia, studies have shown that two physicians looking at the same patient on the same day could have a 35 percent variable in diagnosis.

We need a statistically significant result, Breakstone says.

Neuralights technology is not a cure or a treatment for neurological disease.

Rather, the platform is meant mainly to accelerate pharmaceutical development, with an initial focus on Parkinsons, Alzheimers and multiple sclerosis.

The platform automatically extracts microscopic eye movement measurements that serve as digital endpoints for neurological disorders.

A physician will record a short, five-minute video of a patients eyes. Neuralights imaging tools clean up the video, then artificial intelligence and machine learning get to work at deciphering whats behind the eye movements.

Once Neuralight has extracted ocular metrics on a patient, it plans to sell the data to pharma companies. As Breakstone tells ISRAEL21c, You cant improve what you dont measure.

Digital endpoints are the future of neurology, adds Rivka Kreitman, the companys chief innovation officer and the former head of global innovative research and development at Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva.

This technology has been the missing piece pharma has needed to make drug development for neurological diseases effective and ultimately more successful.

Privacy compliant

In Breakstones ideal world, all the data extracted from videos by Neuralight would be processed on the Neuralight cloud, which he says is HIPAA compliant with all data de-identified (We dont need to see a patients face, only his or her eyes).

Some organizations do want to keep the data in-house for privacy reasons; in those cases, Neuralight brings its own server.

Neuralight does not require eye-trackers, making the process simpler for patients because they dont have to sit still for a relatively long period of time.

Instead, a simple iPhone or even Zoom recording is fine. A Neuralight video recording takes 10 minutes vs. 40 minutes when working with an eye-tracker.

Neuralights AI amplifies and augments standard video resolution so you can glean from standard video signals what you could traditionally do only with professional lab equipment, Breakstone explains.

He likens the resolution to how satellites in space can make out the numbers on a cars license plate using a similar kind of super-resolution.

Neuralight analyzes close to 100 parameters, including blinking rate, how quickly the patient can fix on a specific object, and the speed of pupil dilation (the latter is highly correlated with Parkinsons).

Digital biomarkers

Breakstone cofounded Neuralight with CTO Edmund Benami after Breakstone sold his previous startup, Chorus.ai, to ZoomInfo for $575 million.

I could have retired, but that would have been a little empty, he says. His grandfather suffered from Alzheimers, and that led Breakstone to want to do something to make the world a better place, something I deeply believed in, he tells ISRAEL21c.

Digital biomarkers are very much in vogue, he says, and investors agreed.

Initial funding for Neuralight came from VSC Ventures, Operator Partners, Clover Health CEO Vivek Garipalli and Noam Solomon, the CEO of Immunai.

While most of the 19-person team is in Israel, where R&D is based, Breakstone relocated to Austin to build up the companys connections in the United States.

Neuralight has a working MVP (tech speak for minimum viable product) and Breakstone hopes to receive initial FDA clearance by the end of 2022 with the first commercial contracts signed in 2023.

Clinical trials are due to kick off in the next few months. Neuralight is in conversations with three large pharma companies.

Although neurotechnology is a booming industry, Breakstone says most of Neuralights competition is doing things with devices, not with the eyes. Boston-based Beacon Biosignals, for example, uses EEG data to create biomarkers for neurological disorders, which he says will be harder to be adopted as a universal solution.

Fortunately for the billion people suffering from neurological disorders, Breakstone feels that Neuralight is on an urgent mission. We are building a value-driven company.

For more on Neuralight, click here.

Produced in association with ISRAEL21c.

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The Answer To Parkinson's And Alzheimer's Is All In Your Eyes - Themississippilink

We just finished quite a year. A year that marked our lives with the impacts produced by the ongoing worldwide health and economic crises brought upon us by COVID-19. But, at the same time, it was also a year that saw tremendous gains in innovations and technological development.

Entrepreneur and investor Peter Diamandis estimates that well experience more technological progress in the next 10 years than in the past 100 years put together. According to McKinsey Consulting, 10 years worth of growth for the technologies powering e-commerce were compressed in just three months of 2019. And just as with that example, 2021 proved to be a year of tremendous growth and quick maturity of innovations and technologies. Other prime examples we witnessed this past year were the fast development of mRNA vaccines and the rapidly evolving space travel sector. 2022 looks to continue to yield exponential growth in innovations and technological development. Today, I want to share some of the most significant technological impacts I see for this coming year, and, more importantly, the way they relate to the State of Texas.

Before I begin, I want to reference a couple of facts on how Texas has emerged as a new tech hub, dubbed Silicon Hills, and has recently landed several big-name companies that have moved their headquarters to our state. Many of the companies that have recently moved their operations to Texas have stated that the states lower costs of living, no state income taxes, and recent clusterization of tech companies, all helped secure their decisions.

World-renowned tech companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Hewlett Packard, and Oracle, among others, have recently decided to call Texas home. This recent trend of companies relocating to our state will continue, and Texas cities, Laredo among them, can benefit in different ways. It has been well researched in territorial development studies that talent attracts talent, and the expanding companies in Texas are no exception. Recently, WalletHub compared over 100 U.S. cities to rank the best large cities to start a business. To create its ranking, it used a series of 21 key metrics, including five-year business survival rate, office-space affordability, business environment, and access to resources. Its list includes four Texas cities in its top ten. Laredo ranked number 1.

Here's my overview of five technologies that I expect will achieve enough growth this year to catapult them to significantly impact our lives in the coming years. While many of them might seem straight out of a Hollywood movie, the reality is that they are on the verge of prominently shaping our future.

Air taxis or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are closer to taking flight than we think. 2022 will be a pivotal year for this sector. Some companies, such as Joby Aviation, based in California, and the German company Volocopter will accelerate their tests. The latter will seek to provide its service at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Austin-based Lift Aircraft has partnered with another Texas company, Qarbon Aerospace, to build and fully integrate a personal eVTOL aircraft called the Hexa. The United States Air Force has selected Lift Aircraft as one of its key stakeholders to accelerate the United States participation in this new aerospace sector.

2022 appears to be the first year when more people will travel to space as paid ticketed passengers than astronauts from NASA and other international space agencies. The three most relevant companies in this sector, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, will increase their flights, with the first one aiming at taking passengers to the International Space Station.

SpaceX has a significant presence in Texas, with Starbase located in Boca Chica, near Brownsville. Starbase is now a test, launch, and production site for the company's Starship vehicle, a vessel capable of carrying 100 people at a time.

Last year was a landmark year in the development of vaccines, thanks mainly to the technologies used in the development of mRNA, the scientific basis behind Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines. In 2022 significant advances are expected with the use of this technology to develop vaccines that have been waited on for decades, such as the ones for HIV and Malaria.

Recently, a pair of medical researchers from Houstons Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Childrens Center for Vaccine Development have been in the news. Their COVID-19 vaccine, CORBEVAX, developed using an older and different technology than mRNA, can be manufactured more quickly than other vaccines. Their vaccine enables low-income countries to produce and distribute them more affordably and effectively.

The Metaverse refers to a virtual world accessible by augmented or virtual reality glasses. This year this sector is expected to have a high growth rate, with big-name companies like Oculus, Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite taking the lead. Facebook, the owner of Oculus, has rebranded itself as Meta, positioning the company as a major player in this new sector.

Unity Technologies, a real-time 3-D development platform for game and other app development, recently expanded its presence in Austin and has close to 100 employees. The companys platform powers millions of games, has over 2.5 billion people using Unity-enabled apps and games, and close to 5 billion devices with their software installed on them, making them a key participant in constructing the Metaverse.

This is one more sector in which Elon Musk is involved. In 2022, a company he co-founded, Neuralink, a neurotechnology firm, will try to implant microchips in human brains for the first time, replicating what they have successfully done with animals. Their goal for this year will be to get people with severe spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders to control digital devices with their minds.

Neuralink, on the heels of other Musk companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, is currently expanding its presence in Texas. It has announced plans to open a facility in Austin and hire electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, software developers, neuroengineers, and operations specialists.

Texas is well-positioned to benefit from the impact these five technologies can and will drive this new year and beyond.

Dr. Daniel Covarrubias is the Director of Texas A&M International Universitys Texas Center for Economic and Enterprise Development housed in the A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business.

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2022: The tech future is here in Texas - Laredo Morning Times