The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory was established in 1994 as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Learning and Memory with the purpose of probing the generally uncharted function of the brain. As noted by the institute, around 46 million people globally have Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. With global life expectancy rising and populations becoming older, projections suggest that the number of people with dementia will double every two decades.
Effective treatments are wanting, and Alzheimer’s disease is creating an untenable economic burden: experts project the total cost of Alzheimer’s patient care in the United States alone to reach $1.1 trillion by 2050. Fortunately, Federal funding for Alzheimer’s research has increased in the last years.
In 2014, the Picower Institute launched the Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) to undertake basic research to inform novel ways to tackle the problems presented by the aging brain. ABI is an interdisciplinary research effort harnessing MIT’s knowledge, technical resources, and expertise to uncover the secrets of the aging brain. The fields involved encompass fundamental biology and genetics, neuroscience, chemistry, investigative medicine, and economics, as well as engineering and computer science, artificial intelligence, and urban planning.
Nearly all Alzheimer’s disease treatment approaches focus on biochemically reversing the disease pathology by developing a drug. This can be expensive, and drugs have side effects. In 2016, the lab of Picower Institute Director Li-Huei Tsai collaborated with the labs of Ed Boyden and Emery Brown to initiate an entirely different approach. They observed that in model mice with Alzheimer’s, the gamma frequency (40Hz) synchrony and brain wave power is significantly weaker than in healthy mice.
This may also be the case in people with Alzheimer’s. The labs experimented with mice by introducing the brain rhythms using entirely noninvasive 40Hz visible light flashes and reported that the flashes produced brain-enhancing effects that lessen pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The approach lowered amyloid beta plaques in the visual cortex in two ways: by invigorating microglia to clear away the plaques and by lessening plaque production. The researchers named this economical and noninvasive potential treatment for neurodegeneration GENUS, which stands for “Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory” stimuli. The next step was to test the efficacy of GENUS on humans, which the Tsai Lab undertook in the late 2010s.
In 2019, a paper they published in Neuron demonstrated that long-term GENUS light also served as a protection against neurodegeneration. GENUS safeguarded cognitive performance and memory, as well.
To advance these findings into actual human treatment, Tsai and Boyden founded Cognito Therapeutics in 2016. The company has a presence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, and has since developed a proprietary neuromodulation platform. It has completed over 35,000 treatment sessions in various clinical studies to validate the effects of this groundbreaking therapy for Alzheimer’s.
In December 2020, Cognito received FDA Breakthrough Device designation, and it intends to take part in a pivotal research study for Alzheimer's disease. Cognito also has a pipeline of therapy applications for several diseases in various stages of development.
Effective treatments are wanting, and Alzheimer’s disease is creating an untenable economic burden: experts project the total cost of Alzheimer’s patient care in the United States alone to reach $1.1 trillion by 2050. Fortunately, Federal funding for Alzheimer’s research has increased in the last years.
In 2014, the Picower Institute launched the Aging Brain Initiative (ABI) to undertake basic research to inform novel ways to tackle the problems presented by the aging brain. ABI is an interdisciplinary research effort harnessing MIT’s knowledge, technical resources, and expertise to uncover the secrets of the aging brain. The fields involved encompass fundamental biology and genetics, neuroscience, chemistry, investigative medicine, and economics, as well as engineering and computer science, artificial intelligence, and urban planning.
Nearly all Alzheimer’s disease treatment approaches focus on biochemically reversing the disease pathology by developing a drug. This can be expensive, and drugs have side effects. In 2016, the lab of Picower Institute Director Li-Huei Tsai collaborated with the labs of Ed Boyden and Emery Brown to initiate an entirely different approach. They observed that in model mice with Alzheimer’s, the gamma frequency (40Hz) synchrony and brain wave power is significantly weaker than in healthy mice.
This may also be the case in people with Alzheimer’s. The labs experimented with mice by introducing the brain rhythms using entirely noninvasive 40Hz visible light flashes and reported that the flashes produced brain-enhancing effects that lessen pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The approach lowered amyloid beta plaques in the visual cortex in two ways: by invigorating microglia to clear away the plaques and by lessening plaque production. The researchers named this economical and noninvasive potential treatment for neurodegeneration GENUS, which stands for “Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory” stimuli. The next step was to test the efficacy of GENUS on humans, which the Tsai Lab undertook in the late 2010s.
In 2019, a paper they published in Neuron demonstrated that long-term GENUS light also served as a protection against neurodegeneration. GENUS safeguarded cognitive performance and memory, as well.
To advance these findings into actual human treatment, Tsai and Boyden founded Cognito Therapeutics in 2016. The company has a presence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, and has since developed a proprietary neuromodulation platform. It has completed over 35,000 treatment sessions in various clinical studies to validate the effects of this groundbreaking therapy for Alzheimer’s.
In December 2020, Cognito received FDA Breakthrough Device designation, and it intends to take part in a pivotal research study for Alzheimer's disease. Cognito also has a pipeline of therapy applications for several diseases in various stages of development.
