Cambridge joins forces with ARIA to fast-track radical new technologies to revolutionise brain health

The collaboration, which includes researchers from the University of Cambridge, aims to accelerate progress on new neuro-technologies, including miniaturised brain implants designed to treat depression, dementia, chronic pain, epilepsy and injuries to the nervous system.

Neurological and mental health disorders will affect four in every five people in their lifetimes, and present a greater overall health burden than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. For example, 28 million people in the UK are living with chronic pain and 1.3 million people with traumatic brain injury.

Neuro-technology – where technology is used to control the nervous system - has the potential to deliver new treatments for these disorders, in much the same way that heart pacemakers, cochlear implants and spinal implants have transformed medicine in recent decades.

The technology can be in the form of electronic brain implants that reset abnormal brain activity or help deliver targeted drugs more effectively, brain-computer interfaces that control prosthetic limbs, or technologies that train the patient’s own cells to fight disease. ARIA’s Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space is exploring ways to make the technology more precise, less invasive, and applicable to a broader range of diseases.

Currently, an implant can only interact with large groups of neurons, the cells that transmit information around the brain. Building devices that interact with single neurons will mean a more accurate treatment. Neuro-technologies also have the potential to treat autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and type-1 diabetes.

The science of building technology small enough, precise enough and cheap enough to make a global impact requires an environment where the best minds from across the UK can collaborate, dream up radical, risky ideas and test them without fear of failure.

Professor George Malliaras from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering is one of the project leaders. “Miniaturised devices have the potential to change the lives of millions of people currently suffering from neurological conditions and diseases where drugs have no effect,” he said. “But we are working at the very edge of what is possible in medicine, and it is hard to find the support and funding to try radical, new things. That is why the partnership with ARIA is so exhilarating, because it is giving brilliant people the tools to turn their original ideas into commercially viable devices that are cheap enough to have a global impact.”

Cambridge’s partnership with ARIA will create a home for original thinkers who are struggling to find the funding, space and mentoring needed to stress-test their radical ideas. The three-year partnership is made up of two programmes:

The Fellowship Programme (up to 18 fellowships)

Blue Sky Fellows – a UK-wide offer - we will search the UK for people from any background, with a radical idea in this field and the plan and personal skills to develop it. The best people will be offered a fellowship with the funding to test their ideas in Cambridge rapidly. These Blue Sky Fellows will receive mentorship from our best medical, scientific and business experts and potentially be offered accommodation at a Cambridge college. We will be looking for a specific type of person to be a Blue Sky Fellow. They must be the kind of character who thinks at the very edge of the possible, who doesn’t fear failure, and whose ideas have the potential to change billions of lives, yet would struggle to find funding from existing sources. Not people who think outside the box, more people who don’t see a box at all.

Activator Fellows - a UK-wide offer - those who have already proved that their idea can work, yet need support to turn it into a business, will be invited to become Activator Fellows. They will be offered training in entrepreneurial skills including grant writing, IP management and clinical validation, so their innovation can be ready for investment.

The Ecosystem Programme

The Ecosystem Programme is about creating a vibrant, UK-wide neurotechnology community where leaders from business, science, engineering, academia and the NHS can meet, spark ideas and form collaborations. This will involve quarterly events in Cambridge, road trip events across the UK and access to the thriving online Cambridge network, Connect: Health Tech.

“This unique partnership is all about turning radical ideas into practical, low-cost solutions that change lives,” said Kristin-Anne Rutter, Executive Director of Cambridge University Health Partners. “Cambridge is fielding its best team to make this work and using its networks to bring in the best people from all over the UK. From brilliant scientists to world-leading institutes, hospitals and business experts, everyone in this collaboration is committed to the ARIA partnership because, by working together, we all see an unprecedented opportunity to make a real difference in the world.”

“Physical and mental illnesses and diseases that affect the brain such as dementia are some of the biggest challenges we face both as individuals and as a society,” said Dr Ben Underwood, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. “This funding will bring together different experts doing things at the very limits of science and developing new technology to improve healthcare. We hope this new partnership with the NHS will lead to better care and treatment for people experiencing health conditions.”

Cambridge partners in the project include the Departments of Engineering and Psychiatry, Cambridge Neuroscience, the Milner Therapeutics Institute, the Maxwell Centre, Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP), Cambridge Network, the Babraham Research Campus, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Vellos.