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Monday, December 28, 2009
The Pitch: SynSonix seeks $2.5 million for brain therapy work
By Brendan Lynch
Robotic surgery gains traction
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Life science startups finding investments
SynSonix LLC
Headquarters: Tempe, Ariz., moving to Cambridge
Web: www.synsonix.com
Email: wtyler@synsonix.com
Founded: 2009
Employees: 5
The Pitch: SynSonix is looking for $2.5 million to fund its first two years in business.
Therapeutically stimulating the brain can mean anything from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for depression to a torpedofish placed on the forehead for headaches. SynSonix LLC, a Tempe, Ariz.-based medical devices startup looking to move to Cambridge, has developed ultrasound technology that can control brain function for therapeutic purposes, without having to cut through a person’s skull.
SynSonix is developing a platform for ultrasound medical devices that could take the form of a helmet-mounted device. For example, Parkinson’s disease requires around-the-clock stimulation, so to treat it, a version of the device could be bolted to a patient’s skull under the skin — which still qualifies as less invasive than some current treatments that require removal of a patient’s skull fragments.
SynSonix is targeting Parkinson’s first, but Tyler says the company’s technology could be used to treat ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, tinnitus, obsessive-compulsive disorder, obesity and chronic pain. Ultrasound has been known to stimulate the brain, without affecting the tissue around it, for about 80 years, according to SynSonix CEO Jamie Tyler. “It’s just been underappreciated,” he said.
The startup has shown that its ultrasound technology can stimulate brain activity in the parts of the brain affected by Parkinson’s first in brain slices, then in mice, and then in monkey’s with Parkinson’s symptoms. Deep-brain stimulation can cost as much as $60,000 for the hardware alone, Tyler said. There can also be risky side-effects, including hemorrhaging. Such treatments often also have poor spatial resolution — they can’t penetrate deep into the skull — Tyler said. “People have been searching for less-crude avenues of stimulating the brain for therapies,” he said.
The ultrasound technology also has military applications, Tyler said. He said he has spoken with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, about using SynSonix’s technology to treat soldiers returning from war who are suffering from traumatic brain injuries. And outside the medical device space, SynSonix plans to apply its ultrasound technology to video games, to enable players to control games via their brains.
SynSonix had looked at other locations to set up shop: Seattle, which is a hotbed of ultrasound technology research; Illinois, Minnesota; and the San Francisco Bay Area. But proximity to Harvard University — Tyler did his post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University — as well as to MIT and Boston’s hospitals sealed the deal. The five-employee startup has also hired two Cambridge residents. SynSonix is planning to move in the spring and he said One Kendall Square would be a likely destination.
“At the end of the day, Cambridge wins out,” Tyler said.
In terms of funding, SynSonix is looking for $2.5 million in funding for its first two years of operations here, and $4 million for the following two. Tyler estimates the technology should be cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in about five years. Tyler’s been working on the project as a researcher at Arizona State University for about three years, but got the idea about 10 years ago as a graduate student at the University of Alabama. “I never had the chance to test it until I got my own laboratory,” he said.
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