The Company
Brainminer was founded in 2015 by the Academic inventors and UCLB, the business arm of University College London, with the purpose of commercialising the exciting new machine learning algorithms that have been created for brain analysis at UCL and elsewhere. You can find out more about the company's foundation here.
The company has received over £1M of funding from 2 SBRI awards in 2015 and 2016.
The company’s first product, DIADEM, is CE marked and medically approved.
The company has received over £1M of funding from 2 SBRI awards in 2015 and 2016.
The company’s first product, DIADEM, is CE marked and medically approved.
The Need
There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. Worldwide there are currently 47 million sufferers.
Dementia is not a disease in itself, it is a word used to describe a group of symptoms. The most common forms include Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular dementia, Dementia with Lewy bodies and Frontotemporal dementia. Delivering the most appropriate therapy depends on a correct determination of the form of dementia, but this is often not easy.
More information (with a focus on Alzheimer's, especially in the USA) can be found on the Alzheimer's Association website.
In the UK, the Alzheimer's Society supports carers and families, while Alzheimer's Research UK supports medical research.
Dementia is not a disease in itself, it is a word used to describe a group of symptoms. The most common forms include Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular dementia, Dementia with Lewy bodies and Frontotemporal dementia. Delivering the most appropriate therapy depends on a correct determination of the form of dementia, but this is often not easy.
More information (with a focus on Alzheimer's, especially in the USA) can be found on the Alzheimer's Association website.
In the UK, the Alzheimer's Society supports carers and families, while Alzheimer's Research UK supports medical research.
Our Vision
Brainminer will improve the lives of patients worldwide by enabling imaging-based personalised treatment pathways.
While our first product analyses MR images to aid the diagnosis of dementia, our vision is to apply machine learning technology to a much wider range of brain diseases including MS and conditions such as stroke.
While our first product analyses MR images to aid the diagnosis of dementia, our vision is to apply machine learning technology to a much wider range of brain diseases including MS and conditions such as stroke.
Our Ethos
The algorithms we use are specialised for neurology. They are not off-the-shelf algorithms.
Our team has deep expertise in medical imaging, computational science and engineering. Brainminer is at the forefront of applied digital health.
Our team has deep expertise in medical imaging, computational science and engineering. Brainminer is at the forefront of applied digital health.
The Team
Ian Harris, CEO
Ian Harris has broad experience of building early stage businesses in the life science and medical devices areas. Most relevantly, he was CEO of Cambridge Cognition between 2002 and 2010, a company which commercialised software developed within the University of Cambridge in the area of cognitive assessment and with applications in clinical trials, academic research and healthcare provision.
Richard Littlehales, Chairman
Richard Littlehales is a City trained FCA with broad corporate experience across multiple sectors, from start-ups to mature international businesses in both private and quoted company settings. Richard brings big corporate standards of management and governance to young entrepreneurial businesses with a focus on the commercialisation of innovation in the medical devices and diagnostics sectors.
Stian Johnsen, Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Dr Stian Johnsen is the lead developer responsible for the implementation of the algorithmic back-end and statistical modelling. He has a Ph.D. in medical and biomedical imaging, M.Sc. in medical image computing and M.Sc. in computer science (major in computational science).
He was previously employed by UCL as a post-doc on a related academic project investigating the feasibility of automatic detection of anomalies in MRI brain scans.
He was previously employed by UCL as a post-doc on a related academic project investigating the feasibility of automatic detection of anomalies in MRI brain scans.
Richard Whitehead, Senior Software Engineer
Richard Whitehead is the principal architect of the DIADEM platform, as well as its requirements, estimation and planning. He implemented the controller which orchestrates the behaviour of the product, plus the interface for PACS. He has 22 years of software development experience and has been developing software for medical systems, including life-critical systems, since 1994. He has specialised in image processing throughout his career, including medical image processing for Varian (radiotherapy), Elekta (radiotherapy treatment) and Michelson Diagnostics (optical coherence tomography of skin).
Richard Miles, Senior Software Engineer
Richard Miles is the developer responsible for ensuring the clinical usability of our products. He is a registered Clinical Scientist, having completed the NSHCS (National School of Healthcare Scientists) Scientist Training Program in 2016. Richard’s qualifications also include an MEng in Engineering and an MSc in Clinical Engineering. He has 3 years of experience working with patients and clinicians within the NHS and has over 10 years of experience writing software.
The Founders
Sebastien Ourselin
Prof Seb Ourselin is Director of the newly founded Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Surgical and Interventional Sciences at UCL and a Professor of Medical Image Computing at UCL.
He leads the UCL/UCLH research and development activity in quantitative imaging biomarkers for neurological conditions and over the past 7 years, his group have developed several new imaging biomarkers for tracking changes in MRI in neurodegenerative diseases
You can read his full profile here.
He leads the UCL/UCLH research and development activity in quantitative imaging biomarkers for neurological conditions and over the past 7 years, his group have developed several new imaging biomarkers for tracking changes in MRI in neurodegenerative diseases
You can read his full profile here.
M Jorge Cardoso
Dr Jorge Cardoso is a lecturer in quantitative neuroradiology in the Translational Imaging Group, UCL.
A key area of his expertise lies on the development of novel algorithms for imaging biomarker extraction. He is the main inventor of the geodesic information flow algorithm used in DIADEM.
You can read his full profile here.
A key area of his expertise lies on the development of novel algorithms for imaging biomarker extraction. He is the main inventor of the geodesic information flow algorithm used in DIADEM.
You can read his full profile here.
Marc Modat
Dr Marc Modat is a lecturer in translational neuroimaging within the Translational Imaging Group at UCL.
He is an expert in medical image registration and the development of novel imaging biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.
You can read his full profile here.
He is an expert in medical image registration and the development of novel imaging biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.
You can read his full profile here.
Steven Schooling
Dr Steven Schooling is the Director of Engineering & Physical Sciences at UCL Business and is responsible for knowledge transfer activities across the faculties of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Science and the Built Environment at UCL.
He has over two decades of experience of early-stage technology commercialisation having developed successful spin-off companies. He is currently a director of seven UCL spin-out companies and also represents UCL’s interests in two investment funds.
You can find out more here.
He has over two decades of experience of early-stage technology commercialisation having developed successful spin-off companies. He is currently a director of seven UCL spin-out companies and also represents UCL’s interests in two investment funds.
You can find out more here.