Israeli duo’s Alzheimer’s detection test

Israeli duo’s early Alzheimer’s detection test brings cure one step closer

By Robert Sarner

ISRAELI EXPATRIATE BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS Eliav Shaked and Roy Kirshon may be far from old age but one of its dreaded curses – Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – figures prominently in their lives. As business partners in an artificial intelligence medical imaging start-up in Toronto called RetiSpec, they’ve developed a new way for early detection of AD, the main cause of dementia among older adults.

In recent years, the World medical facility established Health Organization in 1996 dedicated to the has signaled the growing diagnosis and treatment scourge of dementia of Alzheimer’s and (attributed mostly to related disorders, she’s the

AD) as a global epidemic. principal investigator in a

Tied, in part, to an aging current validation study of population, an estimated 47 RetiSpec’s technology. million people around the “Early diagnosis is world now suffer from AD important,” says Cohen, or related dementia. “even if some people say,

“The problem today is ‘why diagnose early and the point at which you just extend the time that diagnose Alzheimer’s,” a person lives with bad

Shaked, 37, told The Times RetiSpec COO Roy Kirshon, left, and CEO Eliav Shaked. news.’ But we think about of Israel during a recent PHOTO COURTESY ROBERT SARNER/ TIMES OF ISRAEL it differently. There’s a lot to interview with him and be done when you make an

Kirshon at a Toronto outdoor cafe. “By then, there’s already a early diagnosis. It helps get on with the business of preparing neurodegenerative process that’s affecting the way the person appropriate care and improving the quality of life and thinks and reasons, which is caused by a pathological change support for patients and their families. It also helps facilitate in the brain that started 10 or 20 years before those clinical research into treatment and finding a cure.” symptoms.”

An irreversible, progressive brain disorder with no known THE BALL IS ROLLING cure, AD is one of the main causes of death among adults Founded in 2016, RetiSpec is a Canadian company with over 65 in the United States. In the past 20 years, deaths eight employees, including Shaked as CEO and Kirshon as from AD there have increased significantly faster than those COO. Another Israeli, Alon Hazan, recently joined as Head from other major causes. It now afflicts 6 million Americans of Artificial Intelligence. and is expected to reach 14 million by 2050. The Alzheimer’s Beyond their partnership, Shaked and Kirshon are

Association of Israel says around 150,000 Israelis have longtime close friends, having met in 2008 at Tel Aviv the disease while in Canada the current number is almost University where both were studying biomedical engineering. 600,000. In the latest boost for their company, Shaked and Kirshon

Given AD’s growing death toll and the massive social concluded a partnership agreement in October with Gentex and economic burden of caring for millions of patients, the Corporation, a major US-based global hi-tech electronics disease looms large on society’s agenda. That’s heightened firm, to engineer, manufacture and commercialize RS1, the interest and support RetiSpec has attracted for its work which uses retinal imaging to look at the back of the eye as a to replace current diagnostic procedures for identifying AD small window to the brain. which are costly and impractical. It was the most recent in a series of auspicious

RetiSpec’s diagnostic tool, named RS1, provides a far developments for RetiSpec. Last November, it won the simpler, less expensive alternative to the discomfort and annual iGan Partners’ Pitch to Heal Event, securing a inconvenience of current practices – a spinal tap or PET $250,000 investment from iGan. A month earlier, it received scan – for detecting AD early. It’s hoped this will help in an award from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation developing more effective treatments and, ultimately, a to accelerate commercialization of the company’s retinal prevention for AD. imaging technology. Supported by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos,

“By the time Alzheimer’s is now diagnosed, it’s already way among others, the award of up to $500,000 includes a direct too late,” says Shaked. “The horse is out of the barn. This is investment in the company. the reality clinicians and neurologists face today. If COVID In 2019, the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization has taught us one thing, it’s that early, accurate diagnostics chose RetiSpec as one of several high-potential health are key in assessing epidemiological cases and supporting science companies for its Capital Access Advisory Program. therapeutics.” RetiSpec has also received funding from the Toronto-

Dr. Sharon Cohen, a behavioral neurologist specializing based Ontario Brain Institute and Centre for Aging and in diseases of memory and cognition who is an expert on Brain Health Innovation. Recently, Shaked and Kirshon

Alzheimer’s research and clinical care, echoes Shaked’s view. completed a second successful funding round with both

As the medical director of Toronto Memory Program, a Canadian and Israeli investors.

The eye as a window to our brain. Sheba Medical team searches the eye for signs of Alzheimer’s. PHOTO COURTESY IFAT SHER

The RetiSpec RS1 diagnostic device. PHOTO COURTESY RETISPEC

“What we’ve developed is non-invasive, quick, easy-to-use and allows for the user, the clinician, to get the results right there on the spot,” says Shaked, who received his BA and MA in bioengineering at Tel Aviv University and has long been passionate about the human brain. “We’ve focused a lot on ensuring the device’s user-friendliness and addressing key needs from a clinical perspective for this to be a successful clinical utility.”

RetiSpec’s RS1 consists of a hyperspectral retinal camera and attached software involving artificial intelligence. It analyzes how light reflects off the back of a person’s eye to identify bits of harmful amyloid proteins and other evidence that indicate AD, even before the patient shows symptoms. The device draws on technology developed by Robert Vince and Swati More at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Drug Design.

In contrast to current options, RS1 provides a painless, more accessible biomarker screening done in only 10 minutes. It’s intended for use in the office of an eye doctor whose retinal cameras would be modified with the addition of RetiSpec’s software and supersensitive camera mounted on standard machines now used by optometrists and ophthalmologists for routine retinal exams.

“Retinal imaging is something that exists today,” says 36-year-old Kirshon. “You do it when you go to your optometrist. What we know how to do is to make those cameras smarter, with a little accessory and software that can acquire images much richer in data allowing us to see things that beforehand were impossible to see using normal retinal imaging.”

“Preliminary results and findings from our current clinical validation studies really boost our confidence and help us understand the incredible potential in bringing this device to market,” says Shaked, whose participation in 2015 in the Google-supported Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program for entrepreneurs in California’s Silicon Valley inspired him to create RetiSpec. “We’ve brought together a lot of serious, global partners who believe in what we’re doing, believe in our team and are helping us get to the point that we’ll be in the market, but it’s not an easy process.”

Shaked and Kirshon hope all the final testing necessary for the regulatory process will be completed by the end of next year, with the device available for purchase by clinicians in 2022.

“So far, what we see is very promising,” Cohen told The Times of Israel. “Interim results suggest an accurate diagnostic, comparing well against the gold standard of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis which is a spinal tap or PET scan. Of course, we await the final data, which we expect by January, but we’re encouraged by the preliminary analysis. The rationale for it makes a lot of sense and in terms of patient acceptance and tolerating the retinal scan, the results have been excellent.”

The hope is that earlier detection of AD provides an opportunity for timely therapeutic intervention that can slow or even somehow halt the disease’s progression. It’s taken on greater relevance following news in August that American pharma giant Biogen won a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) priority review of its muchanticipated but controversial AD drug, with a decision expected in March. If approved, it would become the first treatment to reduce clinical decline in people with AD.

“If you’re able to either tackle the pathology at the stage before it gets too late or prevent it from even getting there from the get-go, that’s what’s missing in Alzheimer’s disease,” says Shaked, who was born in Beersheba but spent most of his youth in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ganei Tikva. “That’s when you can turn it into a chronic disease from something that’s now fatal.”

This article was excerpted from The Times of Israel article from Nov. 21, 2020. Read the article in its entirety at timesofisrael. com/israeli-duos-early-alzheimers-detection-test-brings-cureone-step-closer.