Our August Company of the Month, Cumulus Neuroscience is reshaping the landscape of clinical trials. This Belfast-based health tech company is making it possible to capture valuable cognitive and behavioural data from patients taking part in clinical studies, all from the comfort of their home. The digital biomarkers emerging from these studies have the potential to transform the pace at which new treatments for neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric conditions are discovered.
Early this year, Cumulus was named to Fast Company’s prestigious list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024.
Alison Buick is Head of Global Business Development, having initially directed clinical operations with the company when she joined seven years ago.
“I love the variety and fast pace working for small company in health tech, it builds on my scientific background, pairing that with business strategy, as I draw upon my deep knowledge of biopharma needs for digital biomarkers and novel technologies in drug development. I visit customers and develop relationships, talk with scientists and present our own data at global high-profile meetings, along with negotiating and executing contracts for pharmaceutical companies using Cumulus’ NeuLogiqTM Platform in their clinical trials.”
“I want to drive forward the adoption of innovative digital technologies to accelerate and enrich clinical trials research. I believe that providing better measurement tools (objective and suitable for real-world use) is one of the ways that will enable advancement of much-needed treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Like many others, I have experienced a family member living with Alzheimer’s disease, and I find it inspiring to work in a field where so many people are tackling this, and other neurological conditions, to develop treatments that will make such a difference.
“We benefit from our location in Northern Ireland through access to a skilled high-tech workforce, and feel very well supported through government initiatives as an R&D startup company. Northern Ireland is a great place to live and work, and I’m happy to call it home.
“We continue to build our biopharma business, with our suite of digital biomarkers expanding into bigger, later phase clinical trials throughout 2024. Recently we shared a press release about Cumulus’ inclusion in Bio-Hermes 2 study, where we will investigate the relationship of novel biomarkers to the current gold standard diagnosis across an ethnically diverse population of over 1000 participants in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
We also are seeing exciting shifts in the field, with the advent of new Alzheimer’s treatments coming out on the market, giving rise to more opportunities for technologies such as our own to be used in the diagnostics space. Watch this space!” said Alison.
The Cumulus breakthrough technology was born out of a global challenge facing the biopharmaceutical industry: why were so many of the drugs being developed for dementia failing? In 2019, a panel of like-minded R&D experts was convened by Dr Ruth McKernan, a retired pharmaceutical R&D executive and Venture Partner at SV Health Investors who co-founded the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF). Together, they discussed the major challenges associated with drug development including: how paper-and-pen-based cognitive assessments have limitations and can be influenced by clinician bias; how there was the lack of biomarkers and overlapping symptoms across diseases; and how day-to-day variations in brain function and data noise can compromise accurate measurement. They agreed the solution must allow for frequent measures across multiple domains of brain function, and be combined with objective, real-world brain wave data, all while minimising the burden on patients taking part in clinical studies.
After an extensive due diligence process that included assessing the capabilities of 30 companies, the DDF decided to invest in BrainWaveBank in 2020. This company was selected based on its strong capabilities, including a dry sensor EEG headset that could be used at home, a platform that was software and hardware agnostic, and a set of high-engagement digital tasks to assess memory and executive function.
BrainWaveBank was rebranded as Cumulus Neuroscience and went on to be awarded over £4 million of grant funding from Innovate UK’s Biomedical Catalyst (BMC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to develop a next-generation portable EEG headset. Paired with its AI-enabled multi-domain digital biomarker platform, Cumulus has been able to support better, faster decision-making in neurology and neuropsychiatry clinical trials and patient care.
