BrainSightAI's Laina Emmanuel and Rhimjhim Agrawal: Mapping the mind and matter

Emmanuel, an electronics and communications engineer by training, with an MBA from Indian School of Business, brought some 15 years (in 2019) of global experience in health care management, technology and policy. She had experience in operating system design, public health and health care business.

They were a good match to try and build a platform that would bridge cutting-edge neuroscience and clinical practice.

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Their initial effort, to build a neuro-informatics platform to provide advanced brain imaging-based insights to psychiatrists, proved to be ahead of its time. Meanwhile, their early work in an area called connectomics caught the attention of neurosurgeons, Agrawal recalls.

“Neurosurgeons are among the most tech-savvy doctors in hospitals,” she says. And BrainSight’s ability to provide insights not only into the structural aspects of the brain, but also various functions—like the networks for language, sensory motor and cognition—got the surgeons interested.

In practical terms, this means the surgeons can see BrainSight’s information on their neuro-navigation systems during surgeries. Therefore, “for example, if a tumour is very close to a functional area, the doctors can attempt an alternative route” to reach it, she explains.

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Today psychiatrists are also coming around, and “they’re beginning to adopt our technology. They now understand the use of imaging in their field,” Emmanuel says.

VoxelBox is on the cusp of taking off. It is an AI-powered product that processes data from what are called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the brain’s neural connections.

Agrawal explains that unlike traditional MRI, which provides static images, ‘resting-state fMRI’ captures the dynamic activity and connectivity of the brain, which in turn reveals patterns that can indicate early signs of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

VoxelBox taps advanced machine learning models to generate brain maps, which help in diagnosis, planning surgeries and monitoring treatment. It stands out for its integration of AI, neuroscience and advanced imaging. It uses techniques called MRI oxygenation and MRI diffusion to map both structural and functional connectivity in the brain. This helps to deliver insights that clinicians can actually act upon.

The health-tech entrepreneur duo has also developed a patient care app, named Snowdrop, that combines data from patients, caregivers and clinicians. This can help improve treatment compliance and build holistic patient profiles.

In January, BrainSight secured $5 million in pre-Series A funding led by IAN Alpha Fund, with participation from IvyCap Ventures, Silver Needle and some of its existing investors. The startup’s earlier backers include Pfizer and Stanford Angels.

“Their work stands out for being not just a researcher’s claims but for its real-world applications for hard-to-please customers, the doctors,” Priyank Shanker Garg, managing partner at IAN Alpha Fund, tells Forbes India. Neurosurgeons have discussed their work at the World Neurological Summit, he says. “The founders have also persevered through years of struggle and evolution, and they’ve operated in a way that will stand them in good stead.”.

“If you think about it, today there are tests for blood or urine and so on, but once you get into the brain, there’s little visibility into its functioning,” Garg says. 

BrainSight’s work could potentially deliver a diagnostic tool for the brain and its functioning. “This can have a big impact on our understanding of the brain and its functioning at the level of an individual patient,” he adds.