Startup Spotlight: IRIS looking to reverse effects of Parkinson’s Disease
Founder and Executive Chairman Peter Nuytkens was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2017. After spending a career as a highly-credentialed MedTech entrepreneur, Peter was well-equipped to tackle this now deeply personal issue. A Duke- and MIT-trained biomedical, electrical, and materials science engineer, Peter has 72 original works & patents. He developed critical CT scan components for Analogic (supplier to GE & Siemens) and also created an insulin patch pump for diabetic insulin administration and glucose monitoring. Applying a lifetime of know-how and experience, Peter set out to tackle Parkinson’s disease treatment in a never-before-seen way.
After extensive research, development, and design, the IRIS therapeutic device was born. The device is a crown-like headband that is worn around the head. Using highly targeted, near-infrared light and electromagnetic stimuli, the device syncs stimuli utilizing closed-loop feedback from real-time responses. This allows the optimization of the stimuli’s intensity, frequency, and modulation, calibrating treatment to the patient’s brain state/circadian rhythms.
What this means for the Parkinson’s patient is a host of significant benefits such as heightened mental acuity and focus, improved sleep (with poor sleep being a common and often highly disruptive symptom of PD), enhanced balance and gait, and reduced tremors. These improvements also allow for extended, more efficient efficacy of drug dosage. Due to the reduction in symptoms, this can equated to a ~50% reduction of Sinemet, the current standard of care for PD. Further, the use of the IRIS device has been shown to help reverse the progression of PD, improving the UPDRS score by nearly 70%, and restoring the alpha wave, which is known to become nearly undetectable in PD patients
NEMIC: Championing a Novel Therapeutic for Parkinson’s Disease
In 2023, NEMIC became involved with IRIS in the ongoing development of the device’s commercialization. IRIS was featured as a participant in NEMIC’s Health Tech, MedTech & Life Science Innovation Showcase, which took place in November 2023. IRIS applied and was accepted into NEMIC’s highly competitive 2024 DLT Accelerator, funded by the Rhode Island Dept. of Labor & Training. IRIS has received $17,000 in grant funding and in-kind services for the ongoing development of the device.
As of March 2024, IRIS was approved by Lifespan's independent review board (IRB) for a clinical validation study in summer 2024, for further testing of the device’s impact on patients. NEMIC board member Bharat Ramratnam, who is Chief Scientific Officer at Brown Innovation and Research Collaborative for Health (BIRCH) & Vice President of Research at Lifespan, facilitated connections for the IRIS study. Behind the clinical validation study is principal investigator, Dr. Prarthana Prakash, an assistant professor of neurology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Parkinson's disease specialist at Rhode Island Hospital. Assisting her will be sub-investigator Dr. Emily Weisbach, who is currently completing her residency with a movement disorder fellowship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital.
IRIS is currently raising a friends & family funding round of up to $500K in convertible notes, as well as setting sights on a seed round of ~$5M to support product development and operations. With successful execution, the IRIS device not only has the potential to have a revolutionary impact on Parkinson’s disease; but the device also shows the capability for adjustment + modification to develop effective therapies for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Huntington’s disease, CTE, and more. NEMIC is a proud partner of this ground-breaking therapeutic that is transforming healthcare through innovation for humankind.
