Impulse - Meeting Healthcare Pioneers

Naveed Ejaz is VP Product Strategy and Clinical Development (formerly Director of Digital Therapies) at MindMaze, the very first unicorn from Switzerland, pioneering the fascinating field of digital neurotherapeutics. Underneath these fluffy terms lies the concept of “software-as-a-medicine”, where pieces of code come together to drive a behavioural intervention, enabling patients suffering from neurological diseases to improve their condition. In the area of neurology where pharmaceutical and medical device solutions have been limited, this field opens up promising perspectives in terms of extended care delivery, stronger engagement from patients towards their treatment plans, and facilitated care coordination. We talked with Naveed about how video games could be leveraged to create an engaging therapy for the benefits of patients suffering from neurological diseases, the challenges that companies involved in the field of digital therapeutics face, MindMaze’s vision to build an integrated platform delivering cutting-edge rehabilitation programs for patients, and why all of that is not purely about technology but rather engaging the patients as much as all healthcare professionals surrounding them. We also get a sneak peek at the activities led within MindMaze Labs, the R&D division of the company partnering with institutions like Formula One to understand better how the brain works under extreme situations! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Naveed’s background and what drove him towards neuroscience and neurorehabilitation 00:13:03 - What digital neurotherapeutics are and what “software-as-a-medicine” entails 00:20:30 - Conceptual acceptability towards digital neurotherapeutics in healthcare 00:23:38 - The benefits of gamification in neurorehabilitation therapies 00:29:44 - How the rehabilitation therapies from MindMaze are designed 00:42:57 - The key characteristics of a therapeutic video game that keeps patients engaged 00:47:15 - Rehabilitating fine dextrous motion versus gross movement 00:52:04 - Naveed’s role as VP Product Strategy and Clinical Development (formerly Director of Digital Therapies) 00:55:03 - Initiatives led by MindMaze Labs R&D center and partnering with Formula One What we also talked about with Naveed: BrainGate John Krakauer Johns Hopkins University MindMaze Labs Formula One If you want to know more about MindMaze, we invite you to consult their website and follow their activities on LinkedIn. As mentioned by Naveed in the episode, if you want to know more about the field of digital neurotherapeutics and the latest trends in that regard, have a look at Rock Health (and subscribe to their newsletter) and MobiHealthNews. You can get in touch with Naveed through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]. And if you liked the episode, don’t hesitate to share it, subscribe to the podcast and leave a positive review on streaming platforms! You can follow our activities through our website, over LinkedIn, or on Instagram!

To discover the whole episode type "#7 - Redefining motor rehabilitation with digital neurotherapeutics - Naveed Ejaz - MindMaze" on your streaming platform.

Bringing back mobility to those who lost it. This is the challenge that Jocelyne Bloch, neurosurgeon at the CHUV, together with the neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine from EPFL and their teams at .NeuroRestore and Onward set out to address. A decade after demonstrating that the technology developed by Prof. Courtine’s lab was able to bring back lower limb mobility to paraplegic rats, it has now been applied to humans in a research context through their joint work with phenomenal outcomes: most paraplegic patients implanted with the stimulation system they have developed were able to retrieve significant mobility of their lower limbs, enabling them to stand, walk and even climb stairs! Based on an electrode array coupled to a pulse generator (both fully implantable) remotely controlled, the system delivers selective stimulation of the spinal cord at the locations where the lower limb muscles are activated, in a sequence that replicates the mobility patterns that abled people demonstrate. Images of patients having experienced this technology, moving out of their wheelchair to stand and walk, have been seen throughout the world, and the hope that it brings for those concerned is immense, considering also the other applications that it could open for the rehabilitation of the upper limbs or for blood pressure regulation. In the latest episode from Impulse, we had the chance to sit down with Jocelyne and exchange with her on the infancy of this therapy, where she takes us through its working principle, the challenges that come along with bringing such a technology from the lab to the market, as well as on the life-changing benefits it may hold for patients in the future. With great humility, she also talks about how she manages to combine her clinical practice as a functional neurosurgeon, to leading a research group composed of over 80 collaborators, all of that while raising two children and with a husband at home! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Jocelyne’s background and what led her to functional neurosurgery 00:08:18 - Approach taken to enable paraplegic rats to walk again and moving towards human applications 00:14:55 - The first human implantation 00:17:20 - Towards autonomous mobility renewal 00:18:25 - The STIMO study focusing on mobility and upcoming trials 00:21:03 - Managing expectations of patients 00:23:20 - Making a viable therapy with a reasonable rehabilitation training phase 00:26:17 - Leveraging potential synergies with exoskeletons 00:27:23 - Current technological constraints 00:28:34 - Origins and purpose of .NeuroRestore, and the close collaboration with Onward 00:33:03 - Towards upper limbs and hands rehabilitation therapies 00:34:10 - Retrieving sensory feedback thanks to the current therapy 00:35:23 - Adding brain-computer interaction layers to the current therapy 00:37:56 - Staying on top of things when working as a neurosurgeon, leading a clinical research center, and managing a family life 00:39:41 - Evolving as a woman in the field of neurosurgery What we also talked about with Jocelyne: Grégoire Courtine Patrick Aebischer Jean-Guy Villemure Bogdan Draganski Baroreflex Neuroprosthetics Neuroplasticity EEG ECoG CHUV UNIL EPFL Medtronic Elon Musk We cited with Jocelyne some of the past episodes from the series: #3 – Augmenting the lives of paraplegics with exoskeletons – Tristan Vouga – Twiice #5 – Transforming diagnostics through spatial biology – Déborah Heintze – Lunaphore If you want to know more about .NeuroRestore, we invite you to consult their website. We also invite you to follow their activities on LinkedIn. If you are interested in learning more about the startup Onward, we invite you to check out their website as well as their LinkedIn page. You can contact Jocelyne by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected].

To discover the whole episode type “#6 - Bringing back walking to paraplegics - Jocelyne Bloch - .NeuroRestore” on your streaming platform.

Transforming our understanding of how our immune system works and how certain pathologies like cancer unfold: that is the mission to which Lunaphore has committed since 2014. Through a cutting-edge platform capable of accelerating complex staining and imaging procedures, the Swiss startup is pioneering what is now named “spatial biology”, recognized by the journal Nature as Method of the Year 2020. Applicable to many disease areas, the field carries great hopes in bringing to light new insights that will accelerate drug discovery and drive the development of personalized therapies in the long run. Its power resides in the possibility to analyze multiple biomarkers in parallel, while preserving the spatial properties of the tissue studied. Alongside Ata Tuna Ciftlik and Diego Dupouy, Déborah Heintze is one of the three co-founders of Lunaphore. She joined the adventure soon after the completion of her curriculum in biomedical engineering, the same day that an offer was made to her by a large company for a position that would have been synonymous with stability and comfort from the outset. The gamble paid off, as she now leads as Chief Marketing Officer the product and marketing efforts of the startup, which has been recognized many times as one of the most innovative and promising emerging companies in the Swiss ecosystem. She takes us through the origins of the project, explaining how the opportunity to co-found the startup arose, how the technology they developed functions, and how spatial biology will revolutionize the way we understand immunology and the promises it holds in the fight against many diseases. Timeline: 00:00:00 - Déborah’s background and evolution within Lunaphore since its creation 00:04:48 - How Lunaphore emerged from a PhD thesis 00:06:49 - How the opportunity to co-found a startup emerged 00:10:22 - What the technology from Lunaphore is about 00:12:27 - Paving the way for spatial biology for diagnostic purposes 00:16:48 - The promise that spatial biology holds in our understanding of pathologies like cancer and how Lunaphore is supporting it 00:20:04 - The features and functioning of LabSat® and COMET™ 00:22:50 - Dealing with the analysis of large pathology data volumes 00:25:24 - Transitioning from research applications to clinical ones 00:27:50 - Deploying LabSat® and COMET™ in labs while making sure the onboarding remains flawless for users 00:29:29 - The time and efforts required to build these platforms from scratch up to their market launch 00:33:37 - Moving towards new applications and disease areas 00:35:08 - How the technology from Lunaphore is transforming the staining and imaging workflows in labs 00:38:39 - Evolving as a woman in the medical technology entrepreneurial sphere What we also talked about with Déborah : EPFL Technology Transfer Office Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology CHUV Spatial biology Immunostaining Microfluidics Cytometry Omics DistalMotion Sophia Genetics We cited with Déborah some of the past episodes from “Impulse - Meeting Healthcare Pioneers”: #2 - Treating liver cancer with surgical robotics - Lucien Blondel - Quantum Surgical If you want to know more about Lunaphore, we invite you to consult their website. As mentioned in the episode, we strongly recommend you to check out their blog which aims to democratize spatial biology and all of its aspects in a simple yet informative manner. We also invite you to follow their activities on LinkedIn or through their newsletter (subscription link available through the company website). You can contact Déborah through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]. And if you liked the episode, don’t hesitate to share it, subscribe to the podcast and leave a positive review on streaming platforms!

To discover the whole episode type "#5 - Transforming diagnostics through spatial biology - Déborah Heintze - Lunaphore" on your streaming platform.

One consequence of the covid-19 crisis we are still going through is sepsis, a lethal misguided reaction of the immune system following an infection, currently responsible for 11 million deaths yearly on a global scale. Together with his team, Lukas Langenegger is addressing this life-threatening condition using a unique technology leveraging magnetic microscopic beads that enable the filtration of blood and the removal of toxic compounds circulating through the body during such a medical episode. The so-called Hemosystem is akin to a dialysis machine where the traditional membrane filter is replaced by a solution containing these beads. Offering a very large surface area, they are used to selectively trap key toxic compounds known to contribute to sepsis: their removal enables in fact to reestablish the immune balance of the patient, leading to drastically improved outcomes. This disruptive technology has been rewarded and praised multiple times in the Swiss medtech sphere and the media. Lukas himself has already been featured in the German issue of Forbes, as a recognition for the pioneering work and contribution that he and his team are bringing in the fight against this terrible condition. We exchanged with Lukas on his professional path, which started in the world of banking before moving towards chemical engineering and the start of a PhD, which he interrupted after a few months to embrace the entrepreneurial route. He guides us with passion through the genesis of Hemotune, the functioning of the system they have created and the surprising development perspectives that such a platform could allow, from the treatment of cancer up to the extension of our longevity! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Lukas’ background and the origins of Hemotune 00:02:12 - Transitioning from banking to chemical engineering 00:04:59 - Quitting a PhD to become an entrepreneur 00:07:34 - Bringing multiple specialties together to found Hemotune 00:08:58 - Finding support from the Swiss ecosystem to kick start your own firm 00:09:49 - Hemotune’s technology and its first indication: sepsis 00:11:17 - Understanding the mechanisms of sepsis and the lack of current recovery treatment 00:14:20 - Timing of the intervention for patients using the Hemosystem 00:15:01 - Current standard of care and keeping patients suffering from sepsis alive 00:16:22 - Reestablishing the immune balance thanks to the Hemosystem 00:18:10 - Towards magnetic microscopic beads tailored to each patient 00:19:56 - The Hemosystem workflow and blood filtering cycles 00:20:57 - Engineering the magnetic microscopic beads 00:22:30 - Preventing toxicity from the beads towards the blood 00:26:00 - The development roadmap of the Hemosystem and its foreseen availability 00:30:18 - Moving towards other indications (e.g. cancer, autoimmune diseases, longevity) 00:32:02 - Establishing a new treatment modality at the interface of a drug and a medical device 00:33:15 - Addressing the burden of antimicrobial resistance What we also talked about with Lukas : Carlos Andrea Mora Corinne Hofer Precision Medicine ETHZ MIT Functional Materials Laboratory from Prof. Wendelin Stark HLA-DR Kurz Gesagt Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive Leo Grünstein Spiden If you want to know more about Hemotune, we invite you to consult their website: https://www.hemotune.ch/ We also invite you to follow their activities on LinkedIn or through their newsletter (subscription link available through the company website). You can contact Lukas through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]

To discover the whole episode type "#4 - Filtering the blood with nanoengineered beads - Lukas Langenegger - Hemotune" on your streaming platform.

Wearables bringing back the ability to walk for paraplegics: this is the world in which Tristan Vouga is evolving. Passionate by the field of robotics and willing to have an impact on society, he turned his PhD thesis into the Swiss startup TWIICE. The company is developing a modular exoskeleton, bringing back the ability for its users to stand, walk, climb stairs and even go on a ski tour! Beyond the technological achievement and the numerous awards it has won in international contests, their platform has the potential to transform the lives of many paraplegics as well as amputees. We talked with Tristan about his transition from PhD student to entrepreneur, about their exoskeleton capabilities, the feelings of “ownership, embodiement and agency” that are key to a seamless human-machine interaction, and about how innovation can be derived from science-fiction! Timeline: 00:00:00 - Tristan’s introduction and background in wearable robotics 00:03:22 - Moving to the US to explore brain-controlled exoskeletons 00:08:10 - Description of the exoskeleton TWIICE, how it operates and supports paraplegics 00:10:52 - The importance of embodiment, ownership and agency in human-machine interactions 00:12:42 - Leveraging brain signals to control wearable exoskeletons 00:14:03 - Generating haptic feedback to enhance the feelings of ownership, embodiment and agency 00:15:57 - Developing an exoskeleton for ski touring 00:18:38 - Exploring new use cases for amputees 00:21:01 - Innovative commercial models to distribute the cost of ownership among patients 00:22:59 - A clinical trial to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of TWIICE in a community setting 00:24:29 - Seamless human-machine interaction as a key differentiator 00:26:16 - Moving towards an exoskeleton not requiring crutches 00:30:20 - The Cybathlon and competing against other exoskeletons 00:35:02 - Dealing with the frustration of access hurdles for patients 00:36:11 - Coping with the demand from patients while driving R&D efforts 00:38:17 - Transitioning from PhD student to entrepreneur 00:40:18 - Drawing inspiration from science-fiction What we also talked about with Tristan: EPFL ETHZ Duke University ReHassist The Nicolelis Lab Neuralink The triad: embodiment-ownership-agency Boston Dynamics The Cybathlon The Global Innovation Challenge Blade Runner Testmate Health We cited with Tristan some of the past episodes from the podcast: #1 - Measuring your arterial age to prevent heart diseases - Ted Baldwin - Imageens If you want to know more about Twiice, we invite you to consult their website: https://twiice.ch/ You can contact Tristan through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]

To discover the whole episode type "#3 - Augmenting the lives of paraplegics with exoskeletons - Tristan Vouga - TWIICE" on your streaming platform.

Lucien Blondel is one of the leading figures in the field of surgical robotics, having already led the development of several platforms supporting orthopaedic, spinal and brain surgeries. Together with Quantum Surgical, which he co-founded alongside Bertin Nahum, Fernand Badano and Sophie Roca, they are addressing liver cancer through a new robotic platform supporting ablation procedures. Under the name of “Epione” (the goddess of care in the Greek mythology), it represents a breakthrough in this field, not only supporting surgeons in the execution of the ablation procedure, but also in the planning phase up to the validation of the surgical act. Through a combination of cutting-edge image processing technology, computer vision and haptics, Epione is on its way to revolutionize interventional oncology and improve access to liver cancer ablation, for patients and for surgeons. We exchanged with Lucien on his background, what brought him to surgical robotics, the specificities of this field, his role in leading the technical development of Epione, and its underlying promise in the cure of liver cancer. Timeline: 00:00:00 - Lucien’s introduction and background in surgical robotics 00:04:51 - How he got into this field and what drove his interest to it 00:07:43 - The uprising of surgical robotics and key developments over the past years 00:14:16 - Identifying the right disease area and type of intervention 00:20:02 - The type of cancer targeted by Epione and the surgical act it complements 00:22:49 - Enabling percutaneous ablation beyond interventional radiologists 00:25:02 - Applications of Epione beyond liver cancer 00:27:20 - Epione’s components and workflow 00:32:51 - Synchronizing the patient’s breathing to the robotic arm positioning 00:35:43 - Synergies between Epione and other platforms previously developed by Lucien and his team 00:38:22 - Moving towards fully autonomous surgical interventions 00:41:20 - The meaning behind “Epione” 00:43:11 - Suggested resources to dig deeper into surgical robotics 00:45:34 - The “Why” What we also talked about with Lucien: ROSA Epione Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery Versius Surgical Robotic System Da Vinci Surgical Systems ExcelsiusGPS Gustave Roussy Institute Mayo Clinic The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery If you want to know more about Quantum Surgical, we invite you to consult their website: https://www.quantumsurgical.com/ You can contact Lucien through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]

To discover the whole episode type "#2 - Treating liver cancer with surgical robotics - Lucien Blondel - Quantum Surgical" on your streaming platform.

Cardiovascular diseases represent the leading cause of deaths worldwide. Despite the permanent progress in the treatment of such conditions, targeted prevention approaches remain a key solution to address this issue. This is the challenge that Imageens, a Paris-based startup led by Ted Baldwin, is tackling through the application of artificial intelligence to medical imaging, with the aim to quantify your arterial age. This specific biomarker unvails unique opportunities to anticipate heart conditions for people at moderate risk, with the promise to inform better clinical care decisions. We exchanged with Ted on the burden that cardiovascular diseases represent on a global level, the power of AI applied to medical imaging to discover early indicators of these pathologies, and how these insights can drive better personalized prevention programs to stay away from them. Timeline: 00:01:50 - The origins of Imageens 00:06:23 - The unmet need that Imageens is addressing 00:08:53 - Existing cardiac risk scores and the arterial age concept 00:13:10 - Technical approach to quantify the arterial age using MRI and AI 00:15:41 - Relationship between biological and arterial ages 00:20:32 - The MESA trial led by Johns Hopkins University and its link to the discovery of cardiac risk scores 00:23:26 - Imageens softwares Artfun+ and LABEL, their functioning and role in predictive imaging biomarkers discovery 00:30:21 - Moving beyond MRI to other imaging modalities 00:31:35 - Target patient population and access to Imageens technology 00:33:43 - Acceptance by physicians and the medical community 00:36:48 - Patient journey description 00:38:00 - Moving towards predictive analysis of the optimal cardiac prevention program What we also talked with Ted about: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) MESA trial Framingham risk score Cardiac CT calcium score Ascending aortic distensibility Ted’s TEDx presentation Ganymed Robotics Zoï Altos Labs Qualitiso If you want to know more about Imageens, we invite you to consult their website: https://www.imageens.com/ You can contact Ted through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected] If you want to give me feedback on the episode, ask questions or suggest potential guests, feel free to do so through LinkedIn or by email: [email protected]

To discover the whole episode type "#1 - Measuring your arterial age to prevent heart diseases - Ted Baldwin - Imageens" on your streaming platform.

Welcome to Impulse, the podcast where you will meet the people shaping the current medical advancements, through in-depth conversations about their field of expertise, and the journey that took them where they are now. Its aim is to democratize ongoing advances in medical technology, and introduce listeners to some of its key actors.