SynchNeuro Invents First Non-Invasive, EEG-Based Continuous Glucose Monitor
Co-founders Dr. Casey Halpern and Emily Mirro have built a new consumer-facing EEG device designed to help people with prediabetes take proactive steps to avoid Type 2 diabetes. The device, a discreet behind-the-ear sensor, predicts and tracks blood glucose levels, sleep quality, and other metrics by analyzing brain signals.
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The Challenge
More than one in three American adults has prediabetes, which the CDC labels as “a serious condition” that leads to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and the development of Type 2 diabetes. Somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion people globally have prediabetes.
Half a billion people? Where do you even start?
Most startups tackling metabolic conditions like prediabetes start with nutrition and activity, and rightly so. Modest weight loss and physical activity can bend the curve of a person’s health away from Type 2 diabetes and lower many health risks.
But the team at SynchNeuro is tackling prediabetes from a whole new angle: neuroscience. They’re developing a discrete, wearable EEG sensor that harnesses the power of brain signal data to track and predict blood glucose levels. If they succeed, they’ll not only introduce an affordable new tool for fighting metabolic conditions, but they’ll disrupt the entire wearable market.
Origin Story
Not many stories about prediabetes start with the study of the brain.
Casey Halpern, MD, is a neurosurgeon who has spent his career studying the connection between brain activity and metabolism, first at Stanford and then at the University of Pennsylvania. His lab, which has been NIH funded for a decade, has done cutting-edge research into how the brain impacts eating behavior.
“I’ve always been interested in how the brain communicates with the rest of the body,” says Dr. Halpern.
One of many experiments that Dr. Halpern and his team conducted was to observe what happens in the brain during glucose fluctuations. To accomplish this, they used a continuous glucose monitor alongside an EEG, with electrodes implanted in the brain. Dr. Halpern hypothesized that using machine-learning techniques, it would be possible to read and even predict glucose fluctuations in the body through brain signals.
To the team’s amazement, the hypothesis was correct. There are two reasons why this was such a big deal. First, measuring blood sugar levels is critical to improving health for the hundreds of millions of people with prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. Second, our current methods for tracking blood sugar levels are both costly and painful. Most people who could benefit from a continuous glucose monitor don’t get one because they cost upwards of $100 per month and involve micro needle injections.
If Dr. Halpern could use his discovery to create the world’s first brain signal-based, non-invasive glucose monitor, he could improve the lives of millions of people. The next step was to do the hard work of developing a device that could read these brain signals and deliver them to the patient in an actionable way. To do that, Dr. Halpern launched the company SynchNeuro and called up a long-time collaborator named Emily Mirro.
Building the Team
While all of these experiments were happening at Stanford, Emily Mirro was working at NeuroPace on the West Coast. Her company had developed an implanted system that actively records brain signal data and responds to seizures with targeted electrical stimulation. Over more than two decades with the company, Mirro learned the ins and outs of the neuro device market and the lengthy regulatory process.
Along the way Mirro learned that when it comes to using tiny computers to record electrical signals in the brain, seizure monitoring was just the tip of the iceberg.
“You can learn some incredible things about the body when you monitor brain signals 24/7,” says Mirro.
Through Mirro’s clinical work she began collaborating with Dr. Halpern on research projects related to epilepsy, OCD, and binge eating. They authored several papers together, including one during COVID on the various ways EEG can be used to monitor epilepsy patients remotely.
When Dr. Halpern decided to make the leap and launch SynchNeuro, Mirro was his natural pick for a co-founder.
Under the Hood
At its core, SynchNeuro is a non-invasive sensor that uses brain signals via continuously-measured EEG to gauge blood glucose levels. The current iteration is a flexible behind-the-ear device made out of silicone. Inside the device are three flexible electrodes, a battery, and a chip.
SynchNeuro takes the signals from the brain, uses their machine learning algorithm to decode those signals, and translates the data into results that can be fed back to the patient via a smartphone in the form of proactive lifestyle recommendations and glucose level data.
“We’ve talked to hundreds of prediabetes patients and what they care about the most is getting proactive guidance in a non-invasive and affordable way,” says Mirro.
The form factor of the device is critical, says Mirro, because it has to be comfortable enough to be worn consistently, day and night. That’s because SynchNeuro can serve up data about how the user’s sleep will likely affect their glucose the next day.
“Sleep is hugely important in glucose regulation,” says Mirro. “We figured out how to decode specific features of EEG into a glucose sensitivity metric based on a person’s previous night’s sleep.”
SynchNeuro will also provide users with a long-term metabolic health score that tells patients how efficiently their body is processing glucose in the current month versus previous months. As these patients get more metabolically healthy, their body will be more efficient at processing glucose, which will be reflected in this metabolic health score.
The affordability piece is absolutely critical for SynchNeuro. Millions of people with prediabetes are well on the path towards getting seriously sick, but insurance won’t cover interventions until the patient actually gets a full-blown diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes. SynchNeuro is being designed as an FDA-cleared consumer device, to be sold over the counter to patients at a reasonable price point (around $10/month). After FDA clearance they will work to get their system reimbursed by insurance.
Looking Forward
SynchNeuro is in the early innings – they came out of stealth mode in 2024 at a major diabetes technology meeting – but the implications of this technology are profound. This is a truly novel use of EEG, a technology that is safe, affordable, and non-invasive. It also opens the door to a kind of brain signal analysis that has fascinating implications.
“We're treating metabolism right now but of course if you have a tiny EEG device that's comfortable to wear all day we can monitor lots of other things, like mental, cognitive, and cardiac health,” says Mirro, who is also fascinated by the connections between glucose levels and memory.
At StartUp Health we’re excited to support SynchNeuro because they’re taking aim at a patient population that sorely needs attention and innovation. The prediabetes market represents a huge unmet need in the world. If devices like SynchNeuro can affordably intervene and help these individuals change the trajectory of their health, the downstream impact will be incredible. Type 2 diabetes is devastating, but it’s not inevitable. Moving upstream with interventions is key.
Endocrinology offices are currently flooded with the growing number of diabetes patients that need to be seen. “If you can keep prediabetes patients out of the doctor’s office and give them a way to control their health before they develop Type 2 diabetes, it’s going to be a gamechanger,” says Mirro.
“Given the completely external nature of our wearable, SynchNeuro’s technology would lend itself nicely to this entirely new market that has a real need for proactive tools to manage lifestyle and avoid a diabetes diagnosis,” says Dr. Halpern.
Bringing a new device to market is challenging, but we’re bullish on SynchNeuro because they’ve built the right team for the task and because the regulatory process for glucose monitors is well trod. “There are clear guidelines for proving accuracy,” says Mirro, “so it should be pretty straightforward.”
Finally, we appreciate that SynchNeuro is taking such a novel approach to continuous glucose monitoring. By coming to metabolic health and CGMs from the field of neuroscience, Dr. Halpern and Mirro are able to see old problems differently, and re-imagine what’s possible.
SynchNeuro is on the road towards introducing an inexpensive, non-invasive device that could change the way the world thinks about blood glucose monitoring. Along the way, they also just might create a platform for new ways to use brain signals to help us live healthier lives.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Casey Halpern, Emily Mirro, and the SynchNeuro team to StartUp Health, as a member of our Cardiometabolic Moonshot Community.
Connect with SynchNeuro via email
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Published: Dec 13, 2024