Kernel’s New Infrared “Helmet” Could Make Brain Health Analysis Simple and Affordable
After years of R&D, CEO Ryan Field, PhD, and his team of engineers and designers are introducing an exciting new piece of hardware. This brain scanning device, modeled after a snowboard helmet, uses safe infrared light to dynamically measure oxygen levels in the brain. The ready-to-wear form factor and cloud-based analysis means that this brain health scan can be performed anywhere, by almost anyone.
Challenge
Every year millions of people make a pilgrimage to their primary care doctor’s office for an annual physical. At these perfunctory visits, we expect to get certain information. How is my cholesterol? Is it any lower since I started that new diet? How about my blood pressure? The list goes on.
As people age beyond 50, 60, and 70, these visits become even more important, with new concerns arising each year. Many people use their annual doctor visit to bring up concerns about their brain health, usually because they are experiencing some memory loss. These are often the signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is experienced by 10% to 20% of people over 65.
But unlike lung health and heart health, primary care doctors can’t provide patients with much data on their present and future brain health. Do I actually have MCI or am I just having an off day? Am I on the road to Alzheimer’s or dementia? Would I benefit from starting an early intervention medication? Today, clinicians rely heavily on pen and paper tests – or digital versions of them – to do their best to address these questions. Some of these questions could be answered more completely with a functional MRI (fMRI), but this process is so costly and onerous that precious few ever get sent for one. The millions of other patients who simply would like an in-depth datapoint on their brain health vitals are left out in the cold. And millions of people with brain-related illnesses are diagnosed far too late.
That all could change thanks to a startup called Kernel, which joined StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot in 2024.
Origin Story
Like many health tech startups, Kernel’s story began with an individual who encountered a particular health challenge and a major roadblock in care. In this case it was tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson experiencing a 10-year bout with depression. Throughout his battle he’d visit specialists and was disappointed by the lack of data. How was his brain actually performing? How was it responding to treatment or therapy? It was a black box. And if it was a black box for him, a well-resourced technophile, how much more so was it for the hundreds of millions of people with hurdles to care?
Where this origin story differs from others is that this particular founder sold his tech company for $800 million dollars. That meant that when he decided to develop a new tool for affordable, accessible brain analysis, he had the capital to do it right.
Johnson hired a dream team of engineers, designers, and brain experts, pulling top talent from Qualcomm, Oakley, Intel, Harvard, Caltech, and SpaceX, and gave them the time and funding needed to invent something truly novel. That team included Ryan Field, the company’s current CEO, who was originally hired to build a new kind of optical sensor. Field spent his career building optical and chemical sensor systems, including a stint designing systems for autonomous cars. When he was offered a chance to apply his PhD work to one of the biggest and most impactful challenges of our time – brain health – it was a dream come true.
Kernel’s R&D took five years and a lot of money before the team felt like they’d accomplished their mission. But it was well worth the effort, says Field.
“We spent over $50 million in R&D. A lot of money went into the technology build, and it's one of the things that differentiates us. There's no other company in the world that has a measurement capability like ours.”
Now, after six years of development, Kernel is bringing their research and new product to life in the real world.
Under the Hood
At first glance, the Kernel product looks like an ordinary helmet and is worn in a similar way. Just place it on the head and you’re ready to scan. That ease of use is part of the magic of the product. What’s hidden beneath this apparent simplicity is a complex technology stack for performing detailed measurements of the brain. Unlike brain scan devices like fMRI that require special rooms and specially-trained attendants, this “helmet” can be placed on a patient’s head by pretty much anyone. When Field is at industry events, he often has one in his backpack and encourages people to try it on or have a demo.
Looking inside the helmet, Field compares Kernel to a pulse oximeter in how it uses light to measure oxygen in the blood. Kernel’s optical sensors measure oxygen in the brain by sending small amounts of infrared light through the skull. The light is scattered throughout the brain and then returns to the source to provide data.
“Where we've done something really unique is we measure how long each individual photon spends in the head,” says Field. “Detecting that is tough, but it allows us to separate what's happening in the brain from what’s happening in the scalp.” The result is a dynamic map of the oxygen in the brain.
“Whenever you're doing something, like thinking really hard, you engage all these neurons in the prefrontal cortex in the front of your brain, and you see that they demand fresh, oxygenated blood,” says Field. “So we measure where the blood oxygen is moving in the brain to know what parts of the brain are active at any instant in time.”
Based on how those levels change, Kernel can tell a lot about the individual, including how cognitively healthy they are.
“You can think of it almost like measuring the fuel efficiency (MPG) of a car, but for the brain,” says Field. “We can measure how much effort the brain uses to do a job. Brains that have to work harder to perform a task may show early signs of illness.”
According to Field, Kernel’s product is safe to use.
“The amount of light that we use to measure the brain is so small that you can buy laser cat toys on Amazon that are more dangerous.”
What’s Next
Kernel is moving into an exciting new phase as it comes off the successful completion of a pilot clinical trial aimed at showing that their device can correctly identify mild cognitive impairment. The next phase of the company is turning their successful research into a simple, repeatable product and clinical process that can be run end-to-end in under ten minutes.
Key to their go-to-market strategy is Kernel’s hardware plus algorithm approach. Traditionally, brain scanning hardware has been prohibitively expensive. Kernel has slashed this cost, and plans to lease devices to healthcare providers and then charge for algorithmic analysis on a per-scan basis. That high-volume opportunity on the reimbursable scanning fees means Kernel can drive down hardware costs even more, making each individual test more accessible.
Put simply, Kernel is building towards a not-too-distant reality where patients can come in for their annual wellness visit and, as a part of their regular vitals, get a Kernel brain health scan. That means more people can understand the trajectory of their brain health and, where appropriate, begin to take action. With new therapies for diseases like Alzheimer’s becoming available, these preventative health measures are more important now than ever before.
Join us in welcoming Ryan Field, PhD, and the Kernel team to StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot.
Connect with Kernel via email
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. Learn more and apply for an Alzheimer’s Moonshot Fellowship.
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Published: Aug 15, 2024