Applied Cognition announced the publication of a groundbreaking study in Nature Biomedical Engineering demonstrating the first continuous, non-invasive measurement of human glymphatic function—the brain's system for clearing waste, including Alzheimer's-associated proteins like amyloid and tau. The clinical-stage platform therapeutic company developed this breakthrough technology in collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida and the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Revolutionary Monitoring Technology
The company validated its novel multimodal electrical impedance spectroscopy device using contrast-enhanced MRI, offering a scalable solution that allows real-time, remote, and high-resolution tracking of glymphatic function. This represents a significant advancement over current methods, as studying glymphatic function in humans has been limited to slow, high-cost MRI scans.
"This work is pivotal in defining the role glymphatic dysfunction plays in Alzheimer's and discovering therapies to rescue it," said Dr. Paul Dagum, CEO and co-founder of Applied Cognition. "Our platform has already identified a promising drug candidate that improves glymphatic clearance in early clinical trials."
First-in-Human Insights
The platform revealed, for the first time in humans, how EEG and cardiovascular physiology contribute to sleep-active glymphatic activity. Originally characterized in rodents, the glymphatic system plays a vital role in the removal of toxic proteins, but human studies have been technically challenging until now.
Co-author Dr. Jeffrey Iliff, PhD, from the University of Washington School of Medicine, who previously characterized the glymphatic system in rodents alongside Dr. Maiken Nedergaard at the University of Rochester Medical Center, emphasized the clinical significance. "This unlocks our ability to study glymphatic function in the real world and with high-temporal resolution, not just the MRI suite, giving us new mechanistic insights of its role in neurological and psychiatric conditions," said Dr. Iliff.
Industry Recognition and Drug Development
Piyush Jain, Head of New Products at Genentech, highlighted the platform's potential impact: "Applied Cognition is bridging the gap between lab science and patient care. Their platform is accelerating the discovery of drugs that target the clearance of misfolded proteins at the root of devastating neurological diseases."
Applied Cognition is currently advancing its lead drug program for early-stage Alzheimer's and expanding its pipeline across neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. The company's first-in-class platform enables continuous monitoring of glymphatic activity in humans and has successfully identified the first therapeutic target and lead drug candidate to enhance glymphatic clearance of amyloid and tau.
The study's authors include Paul Dagum, Laurent Giovangrandi, Swati Rane Levendovszky, Jake J. Winebaum, Tarandeep Singh, Yeilim Cho, Robert M. Kaplan, Michael S. Jaffee, Miranda M. Lim, Carla Vandeweerd, and Jeffrey J. Iliff, representing a collaborative effort across multiple institutions to advance understanding of this critical brain clearance system.
