Leveraging a new-age connectomic platform for success!

VoxelBox-Research is now integrated with Medidata’s Rave EDC and Imaging platform to address the holistic research process from start to finish.

BrainSightAI is committed to bringing cutting-edge connectomics in a safe, compliant manner to clinical researchers and practitioners. VoxelBox-Research is now integrated with Medidata’s Rave EDC and Imaging platform to address the holistic research process from start to finish. A huge shout out to the 3D Experience team, Medidata, and our product and tech team here at BrainSightAI. In addition, VoxelBox-Clinical is on its next version and we are on the path to regulatory approval. Read on to discover how VoxelBox-Clinical is advancing our mission of intelligent and data-assured diagnoses and prognoses.

Product Updates

VoxelBox- Clinical

VoxelBox (VB) version 0.9 is underway and processes multimodal MRI imaging such as sMRI, dMRI and rs-fMRI to yield detailed anatomical and functional maps of the brain. The overlay of these maps over tumour maps can guide neurosurgeons in the extent of resection. Here is the testimony of Dr. Mazda Turel, who used VoxelBox-Clinical to confirm language lateralization and the white matter tracts for a brain tumour patient. When compared to similar processing tools, VB 0.9 has an 8% higher SNR and tSNR on average and a 1.5 times superior DICE score. 

Functional mapping

We use rs-fMRI for functional mapping of the brain. As it is a task-negative modality, it aids neurosurgeons to obtain functional networks even for non-cooperative and cognitively challenged patients. 

Our advanced rs-fMRI post-processing pipeline uses state-of-the-art algorithms like Friston24 based motion correction with despiking, faster slice time correction, coregistration, normalisation, and improved skull-stripping using deep learning, with an overall runtime of approximately 28 minutes. VB 0.9, further generates network maps from rs-fMRI using advanced statistical analysis. It uses dynamic thresholding to remove spurious signals and generates more accurate network mapping of Auditory, Sensory Motor, Motor, Language, Visual, DMN and Salience networks. Based on the language network maps and its laterality index, VB 0.9 generates language lateralization which is crucial for tumour surgery and temporal epilepsy.

Integrated AI-intelligence tool for tumour segmentation

Our Deep Neural Network based solution for segmenting GBM tumours (glioblastoma) generates a mean average DICE score of 0.88. 

Automated Tractography using dMRI

In addition to network maps, VB is also capable of generating structural connectomes- white matter tracts. The in-built processing pipeline does robust denoising, eddy current correction, motion correction and normalisation. The latest algorithm that has been developed on probabilistic tractography automatically generates 42 white matter fibre tracts which cover most of the brain including the eloquent areas, such as Arcuate fasciculus, optic tracts, Corticospical tract etc.

VoxelBox-Research 

Neuroscience has faced considerable difficulties in translating research into clinical applications, such as diagnostic tools or therapeutic interventions. This gap, known as the “valley of death,” was mainly attributed to the difficulty of making the transition from research to clinical application. With our unified connectomics research platform VoxelBox Research (powered by MedidatA), we hope to address this gap and enable researchers to think of translational applications from the very beginning.  

Researchers who don’t want to use the advanced Medidata features, and just want to use rs-fMRI preprocessing results to further experiment, can send us rs-fMRI through our sandbox, VoxelBox Basics.

Experts

We are happy to announce that Dr. Jijoe John is collaborating with us on the annotation of tumour segmentation and landmarks in the brain. He currently works as an Interventional Radiologist in the Amala Institute of Medical Sciences in Thrissur, Kerala. With more than a decade of experience under his belt, Dr. John will be helping us to better understand radiological flows in the interpretation of brain tumours.

Dr. Mazda Turel is providing us expert guidance on neurosurgical cases focused on tumour resection. He is a practicing neurosurgeon at Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai. He is also an Honorary Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Groups of Hospitals. Dr. Mazda Turel is one of the leading neurosurgeons in India and we are humbled to be working with him.

Dr. Alben Sigamani is a clinical trial expert and is supporting our clinical research partnerships. He completed his MBBS and MD in Pharmacology from St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru and holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Clinical trials from London school of hygiene and tropical medicine, University of London. Dr Alben is well versed in regulatory affairs, research methods, biostatistics and overall project management for Global clinical trials.

Vinay Krithik, a seasoned sales professional, with over 15 years of medical sales experience has joined our team! He has worked with GE Healthcare, Philips, XCyton Diagnostics and Kirloskar Technologies in the past. Vinay understands the health sector and brings troves of knowledge and enthusiasm to our team.

Varun Trivedi is an expert in building and implementing Quality Management System and Regulatory Strategy for Medical Devices. With over 9 overs of experience he specialises in MDD and IVD devices. He will be supporting us in setting up ISO 13485 processes and helping us meet CE (93/42/EC, 98/79/EC) and US FDA (21 CFR Part 820, 510k) compliances.

Awards

India-Sweden Health innovation challenge

We were chosen as one of the ten winners out of 700 applicants of the India-Sweden Health Innovation Centre run Challenge. The Centre is a collaboration between the Swedish Trade Commissioner’s Office, AIIMS New Delhi and AIIMS Jodhpur. 

Laina, our CEO flew to Dubai to attend the hybrid event! The winners were announced at the World Expo Dubai 2020 by Dr Balram Bhargav, DG, ICMR, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. 

               Tenth from the left, Laina Emmanuel, CEO, BrainSightAI 

Omnis Awards

We won the “Outstanding Asynchronous and Hybrid Working” category in the Omnis Awards 2021. This honour shined light on the strength of our hybrid work model. We are proud of how we built a remote hybrid team in COVID times. 

Our team member, Simran, thinks deeply about all things culture and people. She says, “Half our team is based in Bengaluru and the other half is spread across India. We ensure that we include everyone in all our decisions, big or small. We study the latest research on hybrid working and run small experiments to incorporate every individual’s working style.” BrainSightAI is committed to make the most of the hybrid working structure. Watch Wayne (Director, Remote Leadership Institute) and Laina Emmanuel at the winning announcement.

Achievements

BrainSightAI at Dubai Expo 2020

We were part of the India Innovation Hub at the Indian Pavilion in Dubai Expo 2020. Fifteen startups from India and UAE (including BrainSightAI) showcased their innovation and their journeys to global investors. This session was part of the ninth edition of Elevate, a pitching series supported by HSBC.     

Research Publications

On the frontiers of research

Our advisor, Dr. Sunil Kalmady and CTO, Dr. Rimjhim Agrawal et al. published a paper on predicting OCD using a machine learning framework with neurobiology-aided feature design using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging that is generalizable and reasonably interpretable.

Our neuroscience research lead, Dr. Ranganayaki Sathyanarayan published two papers this year. The first paper, on mitochondrial dysfunction and neurodegeneration, proposes that inhibition of neurotoxin-dependent CII has implications for movement disorders and regulation of autophagy which could potentially offer neuroprotection. This paper was also selected in the Editor’s Choice: Autophagy collection. Her second paper investigates the role of mitochondrial changes in rabies by morphological, biochemical and proteomic analysis of rabies virus-infected human and canine brains.  

Akshay Kumaar, our team’s ML Neuroscience Engineer, published a paper which proposes a hybrid framework using deep learning - named “ImmuneNet” - to recognise the latest intrusion attacks on detection systems and defends healthcare data. 

Many congratulations to our brilliant team members!

Conferences

Indo-Dutch conference webinar

Dr. Rimjhim Agrawal, our CTO, spoke at Netherlands Innovation Network India's 'Digital Dutch Indian Mini-Conference on AI and Dementia' on 25th February, 2022.

Her presentation, Connectomic analysis of Dementia for improving detection and treatment using neuroimaging and digital symptomatic data was inspiring and garnered appreciation from the attendees! Find the recording of her presentation here.

Accelerators

Google for Startups Accelerator

We are one of 20 homegrown startups chosen in India by the Google for Startups Accelerator (GFSA) for its sixth cohort. We are excited to share knowledge and gain technology lessons from Google.  

Neurogram

Neurogram: Covid and the Connectome

Neurogram: VoxelBox-Research for understanding Covid
Long Covid is not simply a continuation of general Covid symptoms over a longer duration, but instead, a series of possibly new neurological, immunological and cardiovascular chronic symptoms that patients may experience after resolution of acute COVID-19. These symptoms are curiously similar to those of another chronic medical illness - myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). 

At BrainSightAI, we built VoxelBox Research to aid in understanding such rare disorders, their symptomatologies, and their relation to other morbidities. To this end, we hosted a webinar “Neurogram: Covid and the Connectome” with leading doctors to discuss their research and how connectomics could help. The speakers were CMC Vellore’s Dr. Ajith Sivadasan, Dr. Pavithra Mannam, Dr. Naina Picardo, and BrainSightAI’s Neuroscience Research Lead, Dr. Ranganayaki Sathyanarayanan. We hosted a webinar, in collaboration with Dassault Systemes.

The recording of the webinar, its highlights, and FAQs of the session can be accessed here. 

Coming Up:

Neurogram: Brain Tumour and the Connectome

Based on our exploration of use-cases for connectomic analysis for brain tumours, we will be kicking off our next Neurogram! We will share more details with you soon.

Neurogram is a virtual mini-symposium in collaboration with doctors, researchers and companies spearheading work in this area. Do sign up for our Brain Tumour Neurogram if you are interested.

Culture

As the world around us changes rapidly, we believe we need agile teams to adapt. We anyway use agile frameworks to guide product development.  Now we have incorporated best practices from holacracy to do agile governance. Combined with Google’s OKRs framework we rolled out thanks to the excellent team at Google, we are able to form self-organising, ambitious teams with agency which quickly adapt to evolving conditions.

Team bonding 

With regard to winding down, Coffee Chats have become a weekly event. In recent sessions, we hosted fun trivia quizzes, intra-team improvisation contests as well as sessions to introduce our teams’ furry friends! 

Last month, a few members of our team met for the first time in-person in Mumbai. We shared stories, worked side-by-side, and even had a live Coffee Chat, albeit over some Bombay-style "cutting chai." The day will always be special, since we realised - whether remote or in-person, it's always a pleasure to work with each other. 

Our in-team improvisation contest, a way to find out more about each other.

Our Bangalore-Mumbai-Pune team meeting

Until next time,

Au revoir!

Team, BrainSightAI