EEG is a decades-old technology used to capture brain activity. These data are used to assess brain diseases. Beacon Biosignals is applying artificial intelligence to these tests, and the neurotechnology startup has found a ready market among pharmaceutical companies that are interested in evaluating how their experimental brain therapies work. Now Beacon Biosignals has something else: $27 million in financing.
The Boston company recently announced A round of financing Led by General Catalyst.
During electroencephalography (EEG), electrodes are fixed on the patient’s scalp. Over a period of time, usually up to an hour, these electrodes capture electrical signals from the brain. By analyzing these signals, clinicians can understand what is happening in the brain. This insight can help diagnose brain and sleep disorders. However, analyzing EEG is a labor-intensive task, and the interpretation of these tests varies from clinician to clinician. Beacon Biosignals stated that its technology can overcome the limitations of human EEG analysis.
Beacon Biosignals has assembled what it claims is one of the largest clinical EEG databases in the world. The company said that by applying its proprietary machine learning algorithms to the database, it has identified neurobiomarkers-biological indicators related to certain patient populations, drug activity and treatment effects.
In drug research, Beacon Biosignals stated that its technology can analyze existing electroencephalograms to gain insight into how drugs work, and how drugs pass through the body and the body’s biological response to it. The technology can also be used to guide patient selection in clinical trials. The disclosed partner companies using Beacon Biosignals technology include Novartis, Praxis Precision Medicines, Cyclerion Therapeutics and Itorsia. The startup plans to use the new funding to seek more pharmaceutical and biotechnology partnerships.
Jacob Donoghue, co-founder and CEO of Beacon Biosignals, said in a prepared statement: “We have identified new types of electrophysiological features related to the function of the primary cognitive endpoint of Alzheimer’s disease.” “Our platform is here. The application of heterogeneous mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and major depression has further inspired us.”
Beacon Biosignals was founded two years ago by scientists and engineers from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An increasing number of companies are using artificial intelligence to analyze data collected from diagnostic technologies and procedures, and this startup is one of them. Iterative Scopes has developed technology to introduce artificial intelligence into endoscopic analysis. In August, this company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Revealed the $30 million Series A financing and the research alliance with Eli Lilly.
Beacon Biosignals said that its Series A financing has brought its total funding to date to $30 million. Other participants in the company’s new financing are Casdin Capital, early seed investors and new angel investors including PathAI CEO Andy Baker.
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