INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared Scale-Up member Oxford Brain Diagnostics, was recently selected as a finalist by Nature Research and Merck KGaA for The Spinoff Prize 2020. The award celebrates excellence in original science, innovative application, and business strategy. 

Oxford Brain Diagnostics, a spin-off from the University of Oxford, has developed a novel and patented approach, called Cortical Disarray Measurement (CDM®), as the result of an eight-year collaboration between Dr Steven Chance (Neuroscience and Pathology) and Prof Mark Jenkinson (Neuroimaging) at the University of Oxford. Their technology has the potential to identify and measure the progression of disease and quantify treatment effects by examining changes in the microscopic brain structure extracted from MRI scan data.

Through this world-leading research, it is bringing to market an early diagnostic tool for Alzheimer’s Disease. As the company grows and expands into new areas, there is also a possibility to explore and identify other neurological disorders in the future.

For the Nature Spinoff Prize, Nature Research sought out the most exciting science-based companies to have emerged from academic labs in the past three years. Oxford Brain Diagnostics, with its Cortical Disarray Measurement (CDM®) technology, was selected as a finalist and featured in a recent issue of Nature, recognising its global excellence in the commercialisation of research.

As a SETsquared Scale-Up member, Oxford Brain Diagnostics is currently being supported by the Scale-Up team in an R&D funding bid.

Steven Chance, Chief Executive Officer at Oxford Brain Diagnostics said:

“We are thrilled to have been selected as one of the finalists for The Nature Spinoff Prize 2020. To be recognised for our CDM technology is a wonderful validation of our work to date and demonstrates its potential for being a game-changing diagnostic tool in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

“Working with the SETsquared Scale-Up team has helped us accelerate progress towards our business goals and commercialise our research. With their support we are working on an R&D funding proposal that would help us to grow the business globally going forward”.

Find out more about the Scale-Up Programme.