Project Details
We address the unmet need for personalized treatment in major depressive disorder. Leveraging world-leading Danish industrial and academic expertise on non-invasive brain stimulation and neuroimaging, we will bring a new non-invasive stimulation therapy that accurately and selectively targets the individual dysfunctional brain circuits to the market. Our personalized precision brain-circuit therapy (Precision-BCT) integrates novel brain stimulation and imaging technology in an efficient clinical workflow to provide personalized depression treatment grounded in the underlying circuit- dysfunction. Showcasing Precision-BCT in depression will prompt its application in other major brain diseases.
Our overall aim is to develop and commercialize a stimulation-based, personalized precision-brain-circuit therapy to be used in major depressive disorder (MDD).
Leveraging major scientific discoveries pinpointing the underlying brain-circuit dysfunctions in MDD, we will create a therapeutic precision stimulation tool – a non-invasive therapeutic tool which can, for the first time, efficiently and selectively target the underlying brain-circuit dysfunction in individual MDD patients, as revealed by functional brain imaging.
Personalized Precision-BCT will offer unprecedented spatial and temporal precision in treating MDD, and thus yield superior clinical efficacy and less side effects than currently used FDA-approved TMS treatment protocols
Specific objectives
Objective 1
We will develop novel Precision-BCT technologies for coordinated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of multiple brain areas.
Objective 2
We will integrate these technologies in a feasible clinical workflow built around a new multi-site TMS device that can deliver highly flexible and precise electromagnetic stimulation patterns to the target brain circuit.
Objective 3
We will test clinical feasibility and effectiveness in terms of better target engagement and modification of the dysfunctional brain circuits compared to standard one-size-fits all TMS therapy.
Objective 4
We will introduce Precision-BCT to the market
Precision stimulation medicine will become reality
We will showcase Precision-BCT as personalized depression treatment of the future, but our Precision-BCT approach is generic and translatable to other brain diseases. If successful in MDD, we anticipate that Precision-BCT will be applied in many major neuropsychiatric diseases. This will trigger a paradigm shift in therapeutic brain stimulation, making precision stimulation medicine a reality.
Since Denmark will be the pace-maker for this paradigm shift, the project will create substantial value for Danish industry and society.
