The following is a transcript of the video.
High above the Catalan capital, Neuroelectrics is developing therapies that it believes will improve the lives of people with brain diseases. The group manufactures around 400 devices which it ships each year to 75 different countries around the world. Everything from research to production and assembly takes place here. Ana Maiques is co-founder and CEO of Neuroelectrics.
ARJUN KHARPAL: Ana, thank you very much for having CNBC here today. Tell me about the products you make here.
ANA MAIQUES: Our main product is the cap which contains up to 32 electrodes and what is innovative about our platform is that any electrode or sensor that I put on my head has the potential to monitor or stimulate your brain.
KHARPAL: What are the applications and treatments for which the headgear can be used?
MAIQUES: Our main indication today is epilepsy. Worldwide, 60 million patients suffer from epilepsy and a third of them do not respond to medication. So these patients usually undergo surgery, either a craniotomy – we remove the part of the brain that creates the seizures – or an implanted device. Neuroelectrics therefore offers this non-invasive solution to try to reduce seizures.
According to Neuroelectrics’ trials with the FDA, an epilepsy patient would need ten daily 20-minute sessions for about eight weeks for their therapy to work. In the future, it is hoped that this helmet can also be used to treat depression and Alzheimer’s disease. So far, the group has conducted an open study with 35 patients with depression.
MAIQUES: Our business and marketing strategy is to really ensure that our therapy is approved by medical authorities and then prescribed by a neurologist or psychiatrist. We are looking for a reimbursement model. So we want health systems to pay for this.
KHARPAL: It’s difficult to talk about this type of technology without also talking about artificial intelligence.
MAIQUES: We’ve been using what we now call AI, or machine learning, or all these sophisticated tools for years. If you think about flight pilots, they’re not getting in planes, they’re in simulators, you know. So why can’t you have a brain simulator, where you can actually have a digital copy of your brain. And then we can say, ok, for you that you suffer from depression, if we offer you this treatment, or this stimulation, how will your brain react? We are very excited about our NeuroTwin technology. I think this will change the way we look at brain diseases.
To learn more about NeuroTwin technology and the research process, I met with Roser Sanchez-Todo, R&D Director of the Brain Modeling Department.
ROSER SANCHEZ-TODO: So, in this floor, we are trying to understand the mechanisms behind the pathology in order to be able to model them, in order to be able to predict how a patient will react to this treatment. Our devices read the electrical activity of the brain, but also inject electricity. So the areas that we focus on are those that are clearly electric. So when you have epilepsy, you feel an electric shock in an area of your brain. So we can really target them and help them with the injected electricity.
KHARPAL: And as for the headset itself, could you just walk me through how it works from when you put it on until you finish the simulation?
SANCHEZ-TODO: There are a few steps. First of all, we need to collect your data. We are building this NeuroTwin. So we’re trying to build a replica of the geometry of the brain, but also of the electrical activity that goes into it. And then we send that to the patient’s tablet, let’s say, or to the doctor, it depends on whether you’re being stimulated at home or in the clinic, right? And then you leave. You put on your helmet, maybe you need help putting on the gel for the electrodes. And you just press start stimulation. Usually this lasts between 20 minutes and an hour where you sit and relax. Then you just take it out, clean it, and start again the next day.
I couldn’t resist trying on the headwear myself. First, we measured the electrical activity recorded in these two frontal electrodes.
KHARPAL: So you see these kind of occasional spikes on the screen. What’s that in response?
SANCHEZ-TODO: They’re an artifact of your blinks.
KHARPAL: Shall we try it? RIGHT. Blinking, blinking. There we go two big peaks there.
Then we injected electricity into my brain.
SANCHEZ-TODO: So this will be the protocol in which we will stimulate you in 50 seconds, and at the beginning you will feel itchy because you have to try the impedance first so that everything is well connected. I press Start. Okay, so now you will start to feel some intensity.
KHARPAL: So electricity is going through my brain. Data is currently being collected.
SANCHEZ-TODO: In fact, it goes from one electrode to the other. So it goes through all the frontal areas of the brain.
KHARPAL: Yeah, I can definitely feel it now. Typically, if this were a good patient, what would the end result be?
SANCHEZ-TODO: Right after this simulation, we just have a patient questionnaire. We will therefore have measurements before and after simulation.
KHARPAL: And is there anything specific that patients need to do when wearing this?
SANCHEZ-TODO: So, let’s say, in epilepsy, sometimes what they do is deprive the patient of sleep. So you can even record seizures, because they are more likely when you are not sleeping. But with healthy participants or if we want to see if there’s a greater likelihood of having Parkinson’s disease, let’s say, maybe we’re doing a specific task because we need the brain to be in a state to be able to predict.
So far, the Neuroelectrics headset has been used by NASA to study brain fatigue after long flights and Boston Children’s Hospital conducted trials that showed patients experienced a 44% reduction in seizures. We hope that the first commercial use of the device will be in epilepsy patients, but this will not happen until full FDA approval. Target date for this, September 2025.