StartUp Health Announces First Companies to Join Alzheimer's Moonshot Community
The initiative, which was announced in January 2024 with support from Gates Ventures and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), kicks off official programming this week. The first round of companies, chosen from more than 100 applicants, span the full spectrum of Alzheimer’s care, from awareness and early detection to diagnosis, treatment, and support. The Alzheimer’s Moonshot will continue to accept applications from founders and researchers, adding qualified teams to the community on a rolling basis. We will keep this article updated as the community grows.
Alzheimer’s disease was first identified and described in 1906. In the century that followed the disease was marked almost entirely by grief and struggle. This terrible disease robs people of their memories and by extension their identities. For some it has seemed like a fate worse than death. For the families and caregivers of people losing their memory to Alzheimer’s – people psychologists refer to as “the invisible second patients” of the disease – Alzheimer’s can mean a decades-long journey of personal loss and physical exhaustion.
For nearly a hundred years, there was little-to-no progress in our ability to cure, slow, or even detect Alzheimer’s disease. Not that people weren’t trying. Behind the scenes, often laboring for decades without public notice, there has been an army of passionate innovators committed to turning this tide. Many, if not most, have had Alzheimer’s touch their lives personally, and that experience has become the catalyst for innovation.
In 2024, we can say with confidence that the tide is turning on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The health innovation community is leaping forward in its collective ability to detect Alzheimer’s early through a range of biomarkers, slow its progression with pharmaceuticals and non-invasive devices, and there are even talks of a cure.
“When we finish 2024, I really think this world’s going to look a lot different for Alzheimer’s patients than it did in December of 2023,” says Phyllis Ferrell, Chief Impact Officer for StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot.
StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot was launched with Gates Ventures and ADDF in order to rally a committed community of Alzheimer’s innovators at this critical moment. We’re leveraging our unique platform of community, coaching, and media (which has supported more than 500 startups over the last 13 years) to help these companies bring their brilliant ideas into the world, to commercialize and scale.
Having first announced the Alzheimer’s Moonshot in January 2024, we’re incredibly excited to introduce the first companies that have joined the community.
“The range of this Alzheimer’s community, which spans across the Alzheimer’s Disease care continuum, has amazed us,” says Steven Krein, CEO and Co-founder of StartUp Health. “Interest has come from every corner of the ecosystem, across different solutions and company stages.”
Below are brief descriptions of the members of the Alzheimer’s Moonshot Community. In the weeks to come, we’ll be sharing deep dives about each company in our Sunday “Meet the Health Transformers” newsletter (subscribe here).
ADmit Therapeutics Created an Epigenetic Platform for Early Alzheimer’s Disease Detection and Intervention
ADmit Therapeutics is on a mission to improve the quality of life of patients and their families with Alzheimer’s disease by providing timely and accurate diagnosis. Under the leadership of founder Marta Barrachina, PhD, ADmit is developing a simple blood test that, when paired with the company’s machine learning algorithm, can provide a personalized report of Alzheimer’s progression. In addition to the short-term goal of Alzheimer’s detection, ADmit is working longer term on supporting the discovery of an Alzheimer’s cure. The company is working to secure their CE-mark before turning their attention to FDA approval. To bring that vision to life they recently completed a financing round led by Clave Capital, with significant support from the EIC Fund and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA). ADmit Therapeutics is based in Barcelona, Spain, and comes to StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the DxA.
ALZpath Is Developing a Best-in-Class Blood Test for Early Alzheimer’s Detection
Today, the first signs of Alzheimer’s are cognitive decline. ALZpath is on a mission to change that. Under the leadership of founder Venkat Shastri, PhD – who was recently named to the TIME100 list of most influential people in health – ALZpath has developed a proprietary blood test they would like to see become the standard annual assessment for brain health, accessible to all. Their technology, a “pTau217 blood-based assay,” enables the identification of crucial Alzheimer's markers before symptoms emerge. This early detection biomarker will allow for greater treatment tracking and clinical trial screening. ALZpath has raised $8M to date (including from ADDF), with additional raises around the corner to support commercialization. They also posted healthy annual recurring revenues in 2023, the first year the test was commercially available to labs. ALZpath comes to StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA).
C. Light Is Using New Eye Movement Tech to Detect Alzheimer’s Early
Founder Christy Sheehy-Bensinger, PhD, is on a mission to bring a non-invasive and affordable test to market that can give early indications of brain conditions like Alzheimer’s. Her academic work in eye movement tracking at Berkeley has opened up a world of opportunity for primary care physicians – who would gain a new, reimbursable tool in their toolbox – and for patients concerned about detecting diseases earlier. Their device, called RetiTrack, is FDA approved as a highly accurate eye movement tracker, with more clinical use cases in the pipeline. C. Light Technologies comes to the Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA).
Esya’s Highly Sensitive Alzheimer’s Blood Test Anchors a New Multi-Faceted Brain Health Platform
When Dhivya Venkat got meningitis in 2016, it caused her to temporarily lose her memory. She fully recovered, but the experience opened her eyes to the physical and emotional burden of memory loss. Building on her experience as a serial entrepreneur, Venkat began to build a platform designed to monitor the health of the brain, with an initial focus on Alzheimer’s. The platform, called Esya, will include biomarkers for early detection, aI-based disease prediction, and pathway differentiation for novel drug discovery and personalized treatments. According to Professor Jack Szostak, PhD, a Nobel Laureate from Harvard University, the technology behind Esya is “truly revolutionary. Research results have been supporting the potential for this to be a real game changer.” Critical to Esya’s future success – they’re actively involved in grant-driven R&D for Parkinson's applications – is the renowned team of scientists that Venkat has brought together, including founder and award-winning professor of chemistry Dr. Yamuna Krishnan, from the University of Chicago. Esya comes to StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA).
Ilios Therapeutics Is Pioneering a Novel Approach to Neurodegenerative Treatments Generating Multifunctional Molecules
CEO and Founder Luca Giani teamed up with Lisa Paborsky, PhD, and a team of experienced drug developers to pioneer a new approach to generating molecules that could become treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's. Key to their strategy is that rather than taking a single-target approach, they’re generating “multifunctional therapeutics” designed to simultaneously target the three key processes in neurodegenerative diseases – protein misfolding, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation. Importantly, they’re leveraging naturally occurring molecules with established efficacy against neurodegenerative processes. "Instead of screening millions of molecules looking for a hit, we start with elements that have already shown promise against these processes,” says Giani. “By rationally designing proprietary compounds, we can overcome efficacy and pharmacology limitations of these naturally-occurring molecules.” By targeting multiple factors simultaneously, Ilios aims to create effective therapies that can ultimately help patients. Illios comes to the Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from ADDF.
Kernel’s Neuroimaging Headset Upgrades Brain Health with Real-Time Data
CEO Ryan Field, PhD, and his team are on a mission to revolutionize dementia care by making objective brain scanning and cognition measurement affordable and accessible. Their technology, which integrates EEG and hemodynamics into a non-invasive headset, supports early detection of cognitive decline and can help optimize treatment through better patient monitoring. By lowering the barrier to brain imaging, Kernel could bring about more personalized, precision medicine. Kernel is building a substantial moat around their technology through successful patents and multiple clinical trials, which have shown results comparable to an fMRI. Kernel released their first research-oriented product last summer (now actively being used in academic institutions and at pharmaceutical companies), which has allowed them to earn early revenue while working on their next clinical trial and FDA submission.
MindAhead Offers Digital Alzheimer’s Therapy Through a Clinical Trial-Backed Behavior Activation Program
With MindAhead, CEO Nina Kiwit and her team are bringing to market an Alzheimer’s digital therapy that leverages behavioral activation, a therapeutic strategy that focuses on restoring a person’s ability to do the things they enjoy in life. Their app, designed for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – who have had little opportunity for clinically-validated treatment to date – includes an AI assistant named after Dr. Barry Rovner, the doctor who originally created the program. The app guides users through brain teasers and physical activities that improve brain function, with a strong emphasis on improving quality of daily life. Founded in Germany, MindAhead has seen early traction with a successful clinical trial and an investment from RoX (Roche Pharma).
Mindr Is a Digital Diagnosis and Prevention Platform That Humanizes Dementia Care at Scale
The seminal FINGER study proved that if people target five areas of their health — train their brains, move their bodies, manage vascular health, eat better, and engage in social activities — they can decrease the risk of dementia and slow the progression of cognitive impairment disorders by up to 40%. That’s a massive potential for improvement, but to date, this study hasn’t been widely understood or acted upon. Co-founders Dr. Inna Marquard and Adam Schultz are on a mission to change that, using their platform called Mindr to make the best Alzheimer’s therapy accessible and actionable. Critical to the Mindr platform is the combination of scalable digital tools with the human touch – patients on the platform sign a contract and make a commitment to a certified health coach who walks them through making small changes along the way that lead to bigger lifestyle change. After a 90-day pilot study, 71% of participants saw an improvement in their memory, 50% saw an uptick in remembering recent conversations, and 43% reporting fewer lost objects. Mindr joined the StartUp Health community in 2023.
Moneta Health Provides Voice-Based Alzheimer’s Therapy That’s Highly Accessible and Medicare Reimbursable
Serial entrepreneur Paul Campbell and bioengineer Jen Flexman, PhD, have teamed up to bring a new early intervention Alzheimer’s treatment platform to market, one that brings hope to patients – and their providers and caregivers – through a familiar medium. When a patient is diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early dementia, they can be referred to Moneta by Medicare just as they would for another specialty clinic. Patients are paired with an experienced therapist and walked through what Flexman describes as “physical therapy for the brain.” Moneta also introduces patients to Mona™, an AI assistant who can help people continue to train their brains on their own time. Part of Moneta’s secret sauce: delivering the whole program over any phone. No computer, smartphone, or app required, for maximum accessibility and ease. When Moneta calls up a patient for a brain health session, getting started is as easy as picking up the phone. From a business perspective, Moneta stands out as the first human plus AI platform for cognitive rehab therapy that’s covered by Medicare.
Neurosteer Built a Low-Cost, Non-Invasive Brain Scan Device to Detect Cognitive Decline
When a patient comes to their primary care doctor with concerns of cognitive decline, there’s little the clinician can do without referring the patient out for a costly and complicated brain assessment. Under CEO and signal processing expert Nathan Intrator, PhD, the team at Neurosteer is working to change this equation with their novel approach to analyzing the brain. Their low-profile, single adhesive electrode strip is affixed to the forehead to automatically deliver multiple objective indicators. Unlike other tests on the market, Neurosteer directly measures neural activity and cognitive ability. Importantly, the device is non-invasive, can be used in a primary care setting, and results are available immediately. Neurosteer’s vision is to democratize access to early detection of Alzheimer’s disease, so more patients can get the care they need to slow or stop disease progression. With clinical trials completed (500 patients with 10k+ assessments), FDA clearance, and seven patents, they are poised to begin commercialization.
Perceiv AI Uses Artificial Intelligence to Predict Alzheimer's Disease Progression and Make Clinical Trials More Effective
In the world of Alzheimer’s, it costs billions of dollars to bring a new drug therapy to market. Part of this cost comes from the high failure rate of clinical trials due to the high variability and unpredictability of disease progression. CEO & Co-founder Christian Dansereau, PhD, put together a world-class team of experts in AI and deep learning in order to address this problem. With Perceiv AI, they’re working to bring precision disease prediction to market and streamline clinical trials. Their first product, Foresight AD™, forecasts the progression of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. While other strategies can reduce the sample size of a trial by 15%, Foresight AD has proved able to reduce a sample size by 51%, reducing drug development costs significantly. And Alzheimer’s is just the beginning. Dansereau has his sights set on predicting the progression of diseases like MS and Parkinson’s – and making their respective clinical trials more efficient and effective. Perceiv AI joined the StartUp Health community in 2022.
RetiSpec Is Developing AI-Driven Eye Scans for Early Alzheimer's Detection
The rise in Alzheimer’s disease therapies has sparked a need for better early disease diagnostics. Enter CEO & Co-founder Eliav Shaked and CBO Catherine Bornbaum, PhD, of RetiSpec. They’ve built a solution that uses AI to pull data-rich analysis from existing retinal imaging cameras available in most eye clinics. RetiSpec’s AI is able to help clinicians detect Alzheimer’s long before symptoms emerge, allowing for earlier intervention. RetiSpec was validated through the first-ever head-to-head study of retinal, digital, and blood-based Alzheimer’s biomarkers, with very strong results. While the data is impressive, perhaps just as important is the fact that RetiSpec is doing this work in a way that is easy to implement and seamlessly integrated into current workflows. RetiSpec is making market inroads, having integrated into optometry clinics in Toronto, launched a pilot in Florida, and announced a partnership with Topcon Healthcare. Retispec comes to the Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA).
Sinaptica Leverages Electrical Brain Stimulation to Significantly Slow Alzheimer’s Disease Progression
Building on the clinical work of Giacomo Koch, MD, PhD, and Emiliano Santarnecchi, PhD, CEO Ken Mariash and his team are developing an exciting new option for treating Alzheimer’s disease. It’s all about using neuroimaging and electrophysiology to electrically stimulate the brain in a targeted manner and, over time, strengthen brain function. At the heart of the business are a series of clinical trial findings that have taken the neurology world by storm – and a bit by surprise. Their phase II clinical trial showed 82% slowing of cognitive decline. Their findings received the “editor’s choice” designation when published in the journal Brain and have been featured heavily in neurology media. Sinaptica received FDA breakthrough status in 2022. With their impressive clinical findings (and phase III on the way) combined with a new device in development, Mariash believes they can not only hit the brakes on Alzheimer’s progression, but also revolutionize business models around neurology specialty clinics.
Stem Pharm’s Neural Organoid Platform Creates New Opportunities for Alzheimer’s Treatment
CEO Steven Visuri, PhD, and his team are pioneering a new approach to drug discovery in neurodegenerative diseases. Stem Pharm’s human neural organoids are “an advanced in vitro platform for neurological drug discovery.” Their specific organoid strategy allows Stem Pharm to model features of human neurodegeneration not observed in rodent models, making it a strong platform for neuro-immune drug discovery research. Visuri brings deep expertise to this project, having spent 25 years in therapeutics, devices, and diagnostics and having successfully led 12+ products through the FDA. Stem Pharm has secured substantial grant funding, built an initial version of their product, and created a revenue stream for research with 10 pharmaceutical companies. What this all adds up to is a team on the audacious mission of actually curing Alzheimer’s disease, with a path forward and strategic partnerships to help them succeed.
TELL Toolkit Uses Speech Analysis to Assess Brain Health, Starting with Spanish Speakers
Founder Fernando Johann, PhD, and his team are adding another important tool in the brain health assessment toolkit: AI-powered speech analysis. By using speech as a first marker of cognitive decline, TELL Toolkit can make these assessments inexpensive, fast, and HIPAA compliant. Their agnostic technology can be white labeled and used through an API, which has led to partnerships with 15 institutions and early revenue. TELL Toolkit claims 87-92% accuracy in their tests. Importantly, and uniquely, TELL Toolkit purports to be the the only product of its kind with AI trained by Spanish speakers. Their deep understanding of the Spanish language and focus on Spanish-speaking patient populations makes TELL Toolkit a leader in accessible Alzheimer’s disease detection. Headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, TELL Toolkit comes to the Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the Tampa Bay Wave Accelerator.
ToxGenSolutions Zeroes in on microRNA for the Early Detection of Alzheimer’s
The Dutch company, under the leadership of Erwin Roggen, PhD, has created a diagnostic device for the early detection of Alzheimer’s and are on their way to developing a preventative drug. At the heart of the solution is their method of measuring microRNAs in a drop of blood. They can anticipate the disease six years before onset, says Roggen, and they’re hoping they can move that window to 10 or 15 years before onset. ToxGen isn’t stopping at the development of this device, which will be submitted to medical agencies for approval later this year. Roggen leads an international team focused on moving from early detection to actual therapy. “We want to use our insight from the diagnostics and the computational part, first, to identify patients as soon as possible, and then to develop potential preventative drugs,” says Roggen. “It doesn't make sense to have an early diagnosis if you don't have any drug to treat it.” ToxGen has received significant funding from EuroStars and ADDF, with another drug development fundraise in the pipeline. ToxGen comes to the Alzheimer’s Moonshot as a referral from the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA).
Zinnia Is Pioneering “Therapeutic TV” That Has Been Proven Effective in Dementia Care
Inspired by her experience caring for her husband, who was diagnosed with dementia at age 47, tech veteran Allyson Schrier set out to make life better for people battling the debilitating condition and for those caring for them every day. What Schrier learned when her husband entered a full-time care facility is that television is often used as a de facto “babysitter” for people with dementia. But it turns out that normal TV programming is confusing and agitating, which is counterproductive for patients and caregivers alike. Her solution, which she’s bringing to market with media executive Bill Uniowski, is a platform of original video content that has been purpose-built to reduce disruptive behaviors, prompt healthy daily activities, and engage patients socially. Everything from the facial expressions on screen to the speed of the video has been dialed in for maximum effectiveness with the patient population at hand. In early studies, this kind of video content has been shown to reduce emotional distress so much that it can be used as a first line of defense for caregivers, before resorting to drugs. Zinnia has taken part in Techstars and AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative.
Call for Alzheimer’s Innovation
With support from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and Gates Ventures, we’ve launched a new global initiative created to develop a collaborative innovation community alongside leading companies, research teams, and stakeholders with a mission to accelerate progress in prevention, diagnosis, and management of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Apply for an Alzheimer’s Moonshot Fellowship.
Become a Health Moonshot Champion
Health moonshots are fueled by passionate families, foundations, and industry organizations committed to achieving health moonshots. Learn how you can join other champions of the T1D Moonshot or one of our other global health moonshots.
Follow us on social media for daily updates on Health Transformers: X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Last Updated: May 21, 2024