The neurotech & AI company has the most sensitive tracker for eye motion on the cellular scale available today to predict neurological diseases in seconds
The neurotech & AI company has the most sensitive tracker for eye motion on the cellular scale available today to predict neurological diseases in seconds
Berkeley, Calif. – Feb. 12, 2020 – C. Light Technologies, a neurotech and AI company participating in UC Berkeley’s premier accelerator SkyDeck, is introducing the world’s first retinal eye-tracking technology paired with machine learning to assess and predict neurological health. The technology is fast (10 seconds), non-invasive and objective.
This life-changing technology can measure the motion of the eye on a cellular scale - movements as small as roughly 1/100 the size of human hair. The technique uses a Tracking Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (TSLO) developed by Dr. Christy Sheehy, founder of C. Light, which images the retina to better understand the conditions of the brain. C. Light’s solution is starting with multiple sclerosis (MS) and in the future will be used to assess or diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and concussions.
“The back of your eye is actually the front of your brain. We use AI paired with eye tracking to create a digital fingerprint of your neurological health, with unprecedented speed and sensitivity,” said Dr. Zachary Helft, C. Light Co-Founder. “Other technologies use the pupil to track eye motion, but our technique images the retina for 120 times more sensitivity than the other tracking systems available today. In other words, C. Light measures eye motion that has been otherwise invisible through existing pupil tracking technologies.”
Neurological health is the fastest-growing area of healthcare costs. With about one million people with MS and six million with Alzheimer’s in the United States, neurodegenerative diseases cost the healthcare system $800 billion annually. Additionally, diagnosing and monitoring these diseases is costly and time-consuming; and delaying diagnosis - combined with very limited medications available for treatment - creates even more challenges, symptoms and side effects for patients. Because of the speed of C. Light’s TSLO machine, doctors may very quickly see the state of the disease and determine how well a particular medication is working and make changes as needed.
Eye motion has been used for decades to quickly triage brain health. This is why a doctor asks you to “follow my finger” with your eyes. They are looking for distinct patterns of eye motion that might help them determine if the brain is working optimally. Today, this new one-of-a-kind solution from C. Light provides accurate information that is clinically actionable. The technology can help better manage a patient’s disease, and allow doctors to treat disease more effectively. Once a condition is confirmed, C. Light can be used to monitor and track progression.
“C. Light is working to create a precision medicine approach for neurological disease. In this era of digital health, we are creating an entirely new data stream about the status of brain health via the eye. Our growing databases and accompanying AI can change the way we monitor and treat all neurological diseases for future generations,” said Dr. Christy K. Sheehy, Ph.D., C. Light Co-founder, who created the company’s core hardware technology through her dissertation work at UC Berkeley. “By measuring eye motion with the finest detail, C. Light is updating this age-old assessment with modern technology to transform a symptom into an objective way to measure disease or injury progression.”
C. Light’s technology is not only fast, it is extremely easy for practitioners to use. Patients simply rest their chin on the chinrest and a technician aligns the person into the system. The patient fixates on a target for 10 seconds and a video is recorded. Patients don’t need to be dilated or use eye drops and are free to blink if needed during the recording. Eye motion is then used to predict neurological disability.
About C. Light
C. Light is a neurotech and AI company that uses retinal eye-tracking to help determine neurological health and the efficacy of medications. The solution takes a fundamentally different approach to eye tracking than other technologies on the market which measure pupil movement. A participant in the elite Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator, C. Light’s new biomarker platform can transform how we assess neurological diseases. The company’s founding team comprises Vision Science Ph.D.s. The company has won two grants from NIH and has partnered with UCSF for Multiple Sclerosis research and UPMC for concussion research. For more information, visit www.clighttechnologies.com.
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Media Contact:
Erica Zeidenberg
Hot Tomato Marketing, PR for C. Light
erica@hottomato.net
925-518-8159 mobile
925-631-0553 office
