R&D Funding Accelerates Proof-of-Concept Prototype Development
Suffern, N.Y., November 15, 2022—NeuroLight, Inc. (f.k.a. Neuroenhancement Lab, LLC), a Suffern, New York-based neuromodulation company, today announced that it has been awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)grantfor$255,851 to conduct research and development (R&D) work on a neuromodulation device to promote healthy sleep.
Sleep deprivation is a silent pandemic. In fact, seven of the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S. have been linked to sleep deprivation. Pharmaceutical intervention is the predominant way that insomnia and other sleep disorders are addressed today; however, these drugs come with serious side effects and negative externalities. Neuromodulation — stimulating the brain using light and sound — promises to offer a noninvasive, nonpharmaceutical alternative to help the millions who suffer with sleep disorders.
NeuroLight is the first company to develop technology for transplanting mental states™ from one person to another. The company intends to use this approach to promote healthy sleep by recording brainwaves in a healthy sleeping person and reproducing the same brain rhythms in another subject who struggles with sleep. The science behind this revolutionary technology was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (9/22/2021).
“We are honored and gratified to have been awarded this highly competitive grant by the NSF,” said NeuroLight Founder and President Alexander Poltorak. “This grant will support R&D efforts to develop a prototype for the proof-of-concept study.”
All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR/STTR program, also known as America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, undergo a rigorous merit-based review process. Once a small business is awarded a Phase I grant, it becomes eligible to apply for Phase II funding and additional supplements totaling up to $1.7 million.
Award Details:
Award Number (FAIN): 2146931
Proposal Number: 2146931
Project Title: SBIR Phase I: Neuromodulation device to promote healthy sleeping cycle.
Funding Opportunity: NSF 21-562 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Phase I
Assistance Listing Number(s) and Name(s): 47.084 NSF Technology, Innovation and Partnerships
Award Recipient: Neuroenhancement Lab LLC (The predecessor in interest of NeuroLight, Inc.)
Award Amount: $255,851
About NeuroLight, Inc.
NeuroLight, Inc. is a neuromodulation R&D company developing pioneering technology for transplanting mental states™ from one person to another (or the same person at a different time). Mental states are represented in the brain by their neural correlates—brainwaves. Transplanting a mental state from a donor to a recipient is a noninvasive procedure that entails recording brainwaves of the donor while in a desired mental state and then stimulating the brain of the recipient with a waveform extracted from the donor’s brainwaves to induce the desired mental state. Besides photobiomodulation using light, NeuroLight also uses auditory stimulation in the form of binaural beats or isochronic tones. The first application the company is working on is the potential treatment of insomnia by entraining a patient’s brain with visual and auditory stimuli modulated with a naturalistic waveform derived from endogenous brainwaves of the sleeping donor. This technology is the subject of numerous patent applications. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.NeuroLight.co.
About the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Small Business Programs.
America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards more than $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million to support research and development, helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.8 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. To learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, visit: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/
NSF has several programs that help accelerate the translation of research results to practice and provide pathways for researchers, startups and aspiring entrepreneurs to move their ideas from the laboratory to the market and society. To learn more about how NSF helps unlock future technologies for national and societal impact, visit: https://beta.nsf.gov/tip/latest.
