Neurotrack Raises $2M From Founders Fund, Social+Capital

TechCrunch 26 Sept
I have two grandparents who are afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease. Unfortunately, in both situations we didn’t find out that they had the disease until they were both showing strong symptoms. In the case of my grandfather, we found out when he was traveling back to India from the U.S. and forgot to get on the plane from Mumbai to Bangalore. He was found wandering the streets of Mumbai with no shoes or wallet and no idea where he was. Neurotrack is a health startup that is going to change the way we diagnose Alzheimer’s and could help prevent what happened to my grandfather from happening to anyone else.
The startup, which graduated from Rock Health’s Boston class, has developed a computer-based cognitive test that can detect the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease up to six years prior to the onset of symptoms. The science behind Neurotrack’s technology stems from 30 years of research that eventually discovered that the hippocampus is the first structure in the brain to be affected by Alzheimer’s. And in most cases, the disease is not detected when this happens.
For CEO Elli Kaplan, this research hits close to home. Like me, she had two grandparents who suffered from Alzheimer’s. After hearing some of the results from early studies at Emory University a few years back, she became intrigued and teamed up with the group of scientists to figure out how they could actually bring this to market.
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