Cambridge on song as ARIA orchestrates brain health revolution
As one of ARIA’s new Activation Partners in the agency’s Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space, this collaboration aims to rocket-boost progress on a new generation of neuro-technologies designed to treat conditions such as depression, dementia, chronic pain, epilepsy and injuries to the nervous system.
Cambridge’s partnership with ARIA will create a home for original thinkers struggling to find the funding, space and mentoring needed to stress-test their radical ideas.
It will scour the UK for innovators from any background with a highly ambitious concept for a technology that could transform brain health. The very best will be offered the resources to test and then scale up their idea at pace, so it can be brought to patients across the world quickly and affordably.
The vision is to unlock more treatments with fewer side-effects, creating a world where personalised brain health care is available to everyone.
Neurological and mental health disorders will affect four in every five people in their lifetimes and present a greater overall health burden than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. For example, 28 million people in the UK are living with chronic pain and 1.3 million with traumatic brain injury.
Neuro-technology – used to control the nervous system – has the potential to deliver revolutionary new treatments for these disorders in much the same way that heart pacemakers, cochlear implants and spinal implants have transformed medicine in recent decades.
These technologies also have the potential to treat autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and type-1 diabetes.
Original thinking is in the DNA of both ARIA and Cambridge, so this partnership will consider supporting any precise neuro-technology with the potential to solve a global health problem.
It could be in the form of electronic brain implants that reset abnormal brain activity or help deliver targeted drugs more effectively, brain-computer interfaces that control prosthetic limbs, new gene therapies, or cutting-edge technologies that train the patient’s own cells to fight disease.
ARIA’s Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space is exploring ways to make the technology more precise, less invasive, and applicable to a broader range of diseases.
The science of building technology small enough, precise enough and cheap enough to make a global impact requires an environment where the very best minds from across the UK can collaborate, dream up ambitious ideas and test them without fear of failure.
The new partnership is not just for academics; it is open to innovators people from all backgrounds and all locations. The lead organisations want everyone to be able to access their expertise and resources so they can turn their concepts into mass produced, affordable and clinic-ready technologies to benefit millions of people suffering around the world.
The three-year partnership is made up of:
The Fellowship Programme (up to 18 fellowships) – Blue Sky Fellows will bring together innovators from around the UK with exciting ideas in neuro-technology, and provide the plan and personal skills to translate them. These Blue Sky Fellows will receive funding to rapidly test their idea in Cambridge, along with mentorship from our best medical, scientific and business experts. A very specific type of person is being sought to become a Blue Sky Fellow. They must be the kind of character who thinks at the very edge of the possible, who doesn’t fear failure, and whose ideas have the potential to change billions of lives, yet would struggle to find funding from existing sources. Not so much people who think outside the box, more people who don’t see a box at all.
Activator Fellows – this programme is for those across the UK who have proof of concept validation for their neuro-technology and need support to turn it into a business. They will be offered training in entrepreneurial skills including grant writing, IP management and clinical validation, so that their innovation can be made ready for the next stage in translation.
The Ecosystem Programme is about creating a vibrant, UK-wide neurotechnology community where leaders from business, science, engineering, academia and the NHS can meet, spark ideas and form collaborations. This will involve quarterly events in Cambridge, road trip events across the UK and access to the thriving online Cambridge network, Connect: Health Tech.
Partners in the initiative are The Milner Therapeutics Institute, The Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge, Departments of Engineering and Psychiatry, Cambridge University Health Partners, Cambridge Network, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), Vellos and Cambridge Neuroscience.
Kristin-Anne Rutter, Executive Director of Cambridge University Health Partners, commented: “This is an incredibly exciting and unique partnership that is all about turning radical ideas into practical, low-cost solutions that change lives.
“Cambridge is fielding its best team to make this work and using its networks to bring in the best people from all over the UK. From brilliant scientists to world-leading institutes, hospitals and business experts, everyone in this collaboration is committed to the ARIA partnership because, by working together, we all see an unprecedented opportunity to make a real difference in the world.”
George Malliaras, FRS, Prince Philip Professor of Technology, University of Cambridge, added: “Miniaturised devices have the potential to change the lives of millions of people currently suffering from neurological conditions and diseases where drugs have no effect.
“But we are working at the very edge of what is possible in medicine, and it is hard to find the support and funding to try radical, new things. That is why the partnership with ARIA is so exhilarating, because it will empower us to give brilliant people the tools to turn their original ideas into scalable, commercially viable devices that can have a global impact.”
