"The WHO considers neurological disorders as the greatest threat to public health", informs Antoine Pouppez, founder of the start-up P3Lab.
Today, these troubles affect 130 million Europeans.
This represents seven million new cases and nine million deaths each year.
P3Lab's mission is to propagate an eye tracking solution called NeuroClues.
Its goal ?
Help diagnose neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injuries or even Alzheimer's.
These collectively affect 3% of European and North American populations.
Thanks to NeuroClues, neurologists will be able to instantly quantify their clinical examination while eliminating the need for additional examinations.
Once placed at the patient's eye level, this electronic mask makes it possible to reduce the time to obtain a diagnosis by several months and to detect specific symptoms such as blockage in walking five years in advance.
Late diagnoses
Diagnosis is the biggest problem with neurological diseases. “This is due to the plasticity of our brain, explains Antoine Pouppez. When one of your neurons dies, the brain manages to find alternatives and ways to bypass this neuron and therefore maintain brain activity without having an impact ”. The problem arises if the cause of this degeneration is a neurological disease. As the plasticity of the brain masks the effects of the disease, “people come to the neurologist too late, when the disease is already too established,” regrets the founder. The challenge is to be able to detect neurological diseases as early as possible ”.
For this, P3Lab focuses on the eyes, which move continuously.
"We make more eye movements during our life than heartbeat" illustrates Antoine Pouppez.
It is the fastest movement of the human body, "going up to 600 degrees per second, with accelerations of 35,000 degrees per second".
A movement that has been scientifically studied for many years.
Eyes as disease detectors
“We have known since the 1960s that eye movements make it possible to establish a causal link between what we observe in movement and damage to the central nephew system,” explains Pierre Daye, another founder of P3Lab.
Certain areas of the central nervous system influence the control and coordination of eye movement.
Since the 1960s, researchers have also known how to compare eye movements.
Those performed by healthy people are not the same as those performed by people with Parkinson's or other forms of neurological disease.
"Eye tracking" or oculometry makes it possible to detect these diseases very early.
This science aimed at studying eye movement is the basis of NeuroClues, the tool developed by P3Lab.
Support practitioners
NeuroClues is designed to meet the needs of practitioners.
It is integrated into the daily practice of physicians thanks to software and a portable eye tracking solution that performs measurements and analyzes in a few minutes.
FPGA sensors and processors are the basis for the design of electronic boards, interfaces and connections.
“In fact, we created a PC with a specific processor and custom webcams with image sensors”, explains Pierre Daye.
The four building blocks of the NeuroClues device are the sensors, the cameras, the logic unit (FPGA) and the hardware.
As for controlling the device, P3Lab has developed an application available on Windows, Mac and Android.
P3Lab aims "to bring this diagnostic solution known in research, into the practice of the clinician to apply it in the diagnosis of neurological diseases".
Neurological diseases, such as concussion, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's or even parkinsonian syndrome, affect 3% of the population for whom "eye tracking has a value", illustrates Antoine Pouppez.
Reduce diagnostic time
This tool represents a paradigm shift in the diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome.
It instantly quantifies the neurologist's clinical examination, while eliminating the need for additional examinations.
Its technology thus reduces the patient's waiting time for a diagnosis by several months.
More precisely, NeuroClues detects, several years in advance, specific symptoms such as blocked walking.
In the future, P3Lab would like to develop a second device intended for general practitioners.
Based on the same technology, this tool would be used to study the patient's eye movements in an "ultra-simple" way so that they can be quickly redirected to a neurologist if necessary.
Medical certification
In comparison with what already exists on the market, NeuroClues will be certified as a “medical device”.
"It can therefore be used in current medical practice without requiring administrative ethics verification documents" translated Pierre Daye.
This month P3Lab announces the success of its fundraising of 4.2 million euros led by Invest.
BW, the American Graph Ventures, Artwall, of the Operator Angels.
The Walloon Region (DGO6 and Novalia) also supports the start-up.
Currently, P3Lab is building a network of international collaborations in Europe and the United States.
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