A Connecticut inventor said an Arizona company has licensed his technology, which aims to use electromagnetic waves to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Eric Knight of Farmington’s Remarkable Technologies said Phoenix’s NeuroEM Therapeutics has taken a no-fee research and development license for an apparatus he patented in May, designed to deliver radio waves to the brain, targeting a type of plaque that is suspected to be a cause of the disease affecting millions worldwide.
Knight said the nonexclusive license, which he hopes to offer to others, is aimed at getting the greatest number of researchers working on the problem.
“Given the magnitude of the medical problem, we want to help get the technology into the research pipeline as quickly as possible,” Knight said.
He said the patent would allow for a wearable device or one embedded in a pillow or mattress. It could also be built into a computer-controlled system similar to a CT scan.
Knight has been working on his technology for nearly six years. He first hinted at the existence of his project in 2013.
Wave-based techniques have shown promise for preventing and reversing cognitive impairment in mice, according to a 2010 study authored by Gary Arendash, a former University of South Florida researcher who founded NeuroEM in 2013.
Arendash said in an email Thursday afternoon that Knight’s technology adds to and complement NeuroEM’s own patent portfolio.
“..given the inability of drugs to stop or reverse Alzheimer’s Disease despite many clinical trials over many years, [transcranial electromagnetic treatment] offers a non-invasive and potentially disease-modifying intervention that will be in clinical trials very shortly,” Arendash said.
NeuroEM holds an exclusive license from USF to technology developed by Arendash while he worked at the school. The company has collaborated with Arizona State University and others and is working toward a clinical trial.
