Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Wednesday, January 20 2021 - 15:00
AsiaNet
Innodem Neurosciences Receives 6 Million US Dollars of Financing From Morningside Group
MONTREAL, Jan. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

Innodem Neurosciences ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3038082-1&h=571427354&u=https%3A%2F%2Finnodemneurosciences.com%2F&a=Innodem+Neurosciences 
), a Montreal-based company, has closed a Series A financing round led by 
Morningside Ventures ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3038082-1&h=3206232820&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.morningside.com%2F&a=Morningside+Ventures 
) to support the development and commercialization of its proprietary, 
patented, digital biomarking technology of neurodegenerative diseases such as 
Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and related 
disorders, Frontotemporal Dementia and related disorders and Cancer-Related 
Cognitive Impairment ("chemo brain"). 

Innodem's mobile software technology is embodied in an application that turns a 
tablet or a smartphone into a device capable of capturing Eye Movement 
Biomarkers (EMBs) and Gaze Mapping Biomarkers (GMBs) accurately within minutes 
in order to assist a clinician's diagnosis. Current and future clinical 
validation trials will provide EMB & GMB data to Innodem's fully integrated 
HIPAA/PIPEDA compliant data management pipeline leveraging the latest deep 
learning technology.

"Morningside is the ideal investor to help us transition our novel technology 
into a future industry standard. This technology will be highly accessible and 
improve the quality of care and patient outcomes, with unseen levels of 
user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness for the global health system" added 
Innodem's co-founder & Chief Business Officer, Marc Reeves. 

After a successful Seed round in 2019 and the launch of Pigio(TM) – Innodem's 
Proof of Concept technology & iPad App – the company obtained a USPTO patent 
and was able to increase the precision of its eye tracking technology to a 
level comparable or better than existing and costly infrared hardware 
solutions. Using deep learning on the anonymous data emanating from thousands 
of Pigio(TM) users, Innodem was able to refine its original algorithm and pivot 
towards the development of unique digital EMB & GMB technology used by 
pharmaceutical companies to improve clinical trial management. The innovative 
technology is also patent pending in Europe, Japan and China.

"Emerging digital biomarking technologies are redefining the global, 
multi-billion dollars, diagnostic imaging market and our investment in Innodem 
is in line with our overall portfolio strategy" added Gerald Chan, Chairman & 
CEO of Morningside Group.

"The interesting thing with mobile artificial intelligence applications is that 
the more data we obtain, the more accurate our algorithms become at detecting 
and tracking the presence and progression of these various devastating 
neurological conditions. This has truly been a collaborative effort with my 
colleagues at the Montreal NEURO and McGill, since access to well-phenotyped 
patients is crucial for the training and refinement of our technology. Digital 
EMB & GMB tests are non-invasive and can be completed in minutes by the patient 
from the comfort of their own home. Remote self-testing is a major advantage, 
even more so during a global pandemic" added Dr. de Villers-Sidani, cognitive 
neurologist, main founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Scientific Officer 
of Innodem.

Over the course of Innodem's ongoing trial at the Montreal NEURO involving 
patients suffering from MS, bi-weekly self-testing results will assist 
healthcare professionals in detecting subtle changes that may not show up using 
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), despite these changes being indicative of 
disease progression and the onset of more pronounced symptoms. Innodem 
management is hopeful that the multi-year trial will demonstrate that novel 
digital EMBs & GMBs can measure these changes accurately and cost-effectively 
while improving quality of care and patient outcomes. 

"A clinician whose patient is transitioning to the progressive form of MS may 
recommend a better adapted treatment which could, if detected early, prevent 
this individual from developing severe neurological impairments. No practical 
tools currently exist to detect such a transition to progressive MS and I 
believe EMBs & GMBs can fill that important gap", added Dr. Etienne de 
Villers-Sidani. 

About INNODEM NEUROSCIENCES 

Founded in 2016, Innodem Neurosciences has developed patented mobile digital 
biomarking technology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, 
Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and related disorders, Frontotemporal 
Dementia and related disorders and Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment ("chemo 
brain"). This novel eye-tracking and cognition testing technology is embodied 
in a HIPAA/PIPEDA compliant system consisting of an intuitive tablet 
application (smartphone coming soon) connected to a cloud-based AI 
infrastructure. The app is made up of a series of tasks that are completed in 
minutes, where a user's eye movement is recorded in data sets called Eye 
Movement Biomarkers (EMBs) and Gaze Mapping Biomarkers (GMBs). Innodem's core 
team, led by cognitive neurologist & CEO Dr. Etienne de Villers-Sidani, is 
composed of an intersectional group of neuroscientists, software engineers, 
data scientists, healthcare professionals and serial entrepreneurs. The 
company's mission is to provide easier ways to do remote testing for all stages 
of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer-related cognitive impairment to 
improve quality of care and patient outcomes, at unseen levels of 
user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness for the global health system. 

About MORNINGSIDE GROUP

Morningside Group was founded in 1986, by the Chan family of Hong Kong, to make 
private equity and venture capital investments. The group is managed by 
investment professionals who are entrepreneurial, have deep industry knowledge 
and are effective in the local environment in which they operate. In addition 
to its investment activities, Morningside Group is strongly committed to social 
responsibility. To learn more, visit www.morningside.com.  

Contact: Valerie Gonzalo, +1.514.923.1549, valerie@agocom.ca

SOURCE Innodem Neurosciences
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