Brain science is considered to be the next frontier of technological development. At the beginning of this month, Neural Galaxy, an innovative brain science company, announced the completion of a pre-A round of financing of more than RMB100 million. The investment is led by Lightspeed China, and followed by Feng Rui Capital, Mint Angel Fund, Bencao Capital, Qingyuan Capital and Ray Stata.

“Most of the major brain diseases, such as depression, Parkinson’s Brain science is considered to be the next frontier of technological development. At the beginning of this month, Neural Galaxy, an innovative brain science company, announced the completion of a pre-A round of financing of more than RMB100 million. The investment is led by Lightspeed China, and followed by Feng Rui Capital, Mint Angel Fund, Bencao Capital, Qingyuan Capital and Ray Stata.

1. What is the goal of Neural Galaxy after winning RMB100 million financing? 2. What are the entry paths for commercialization of brain science? 3. Computer sciences such as artificial intelligence and big data have been combined with biology in the research of the brain. What breakthroughs will interdisciplinary exploration bring? 4. How much market share does brain science have?

Three basics: read, interpret, and document

What does the Neural Galaxy aim to address and achieve? It is to 'read, interpret and document' the human brain, Wei Kecheng indicates in an exclusive interview with the Starmarket.

Our understanding of the brain is still in its infancy. In Mr. Coach Wei's view, the brain is like a black box, and humans still cannot understand the working mechanism inside. As to what goes wrong in this black box, such as brain diseases, humans currently lack effective methods to detect or correct. At present, there are about 1 billion people in the world suffering from various brain disorders, including Alzheimer's, depression, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and autism, accounting for 28% of the global burden of diseases (GBD).

To further understand the brain and its mechanisms, and to search for diagnosis and treatment solutions for brain disorders have always been the goal of the science community.

The human brain is a very complex organ, containing countless neurons more than the stars in the universe. The biologists often conduct the research from the micro level, by breaking down a large system into tiny units such as neurons, and strive to understand the tiny units first. However, the overall complexity of the human brain at the micro level is far beyond the current human comprehension. Thus the slow progress keeps practical applications at a distance.

Neural Galaxy takes a different approach, namely, endeavors to study the human brain from a system perspective. “If the human brain is a black box, we first read the signals from it. Then we parse these signals to understand its internal mechanism. Finally, we try to write signals into the black box to address the corresponding problems”.

"For example, brain disease means that something in our brain may have changed or deteriorated. The core requirement to diagnose and to treat brain diseases is to obtain signals by avoiding any possible damage to this black box and to figure out where it is broken and what is broken. The study of brain disorders, in simple terms, is to link "where and what is broken" with specific diseases and symptoms. Regardless of what method we use, be it medicine, devices, or surgery, the essence of treating brain diseases is to write something into the brain to address the problems so as to achieve the purpose of curing the disease." Wei Kecheng said.

The study of neuroscience from a systems perspective instead of a microscopic perspective is central to the discipline of "Systems Neuroscience".

Professor Liu Hesheng, the co-founder of Neural Galaxy, is the pioneer of "Systems Neuroscience". This discipline is to view the human brain as a system and to advance the understanding of cognition, intelligence and brain diseases through the method of "reading, deciphering, and writing signals". Compared with the approaches from a microscopic perspective, systems neuroscience is closer to practical applications, and is most likely to achieve breakthroughs in brain science in the near future.

According to Mr. Coach Wei, Neural Galaxy products are developed around these three aspects of systems neuroscience. Aiming at understanding brain mechanisms, the company’s "Precision Brain Function Atlas" can accurately quantify more than 200 functional regions of an individual’s entire brain. Through 10-15 minutes of MRI scans and algorithm analysis, this technology can accurately depict a patient's brain function atlas, analyze the state of different brain functions, and provide a basis for understanding, clinical diagnosis and treatment for brain disease.

In terms of detecting brain disease, based on the "Precision Brain Function Atlas", Neural Galaxy utilizes new technologies to launch its first series of products including a precision brain function platform and spectrum for the individual brain. These products have been used in top-class hospitals such as Beijing 301 Hospital, Xuanwu Hospital, Shanghai Huashan Hospital, and Tianjin Medical University General Hospital. Mr. Coach Wei stated that the clinical reproducibility of this technology reaches 90%, which meets or exceeds the current hospital standards. The individual precision brain function platform has been used to diagnose and analyse thousands of cases involving dozens of diseases.

In terms of treatment, Neural Galaxy has several innovative therapeutic products that integrate brain-computers under development. Mr. Coach Wei further revealed that related products have been clinically used in 5-6 hospitals with good results in treating diseases such as aphasia, depression, and hemiplegia. These are expected to bring about a breakthrough treatment for brain disorders.

Interdisciplinary exploration and market potential

After graduating from MIT, Mr. Coach Wei entered the computer science industry. Before Neural Galaxy, Coach Wei founded 3 technology companies in the fields of corporate software, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Two have been acquired and one is in operation.

”So, how did Coach Wei switch to brain science? "About 5 or 6 years ago, I was exploring more powerful artificial intelligence. For example, ‘AlphaGo’ defeated the best professional Go players, but it was limited to the field of board games. Outside of this field, it may not be able to answer even the simplest questions. I was thinking that if we really want a breakthrough, perhaps the most important is to have a deeper understanding of our brain and understand how the human brain works."

In the following years, Wei and three brain scientists, Professor Liu Hesheng of Harvard Medical School, Academician Robert Desimone of MIT, and Academician Feng Guoping of MIT, had in-depth conversations. "I realize that their lab works have achieved some very important breakthroughs in brain science, reaching the critical point of commercial transformation with a promising market prospect", said Coach Wei.

"In particular, the Systems Neuroscience pioneered by Professor Liu Hesheng, can detect and treat brain diseases as well as recognize the brain and artificial intelligence. It is very exciting to see the possibility of launching large-scale products in the near future and breaking the long-time bottleneck of practical application in the history of brain science research. I studied systems engineering, signal processing and control theory at Tsinghua University and later at MIT. "Systems neuroscience" is actually the intersection of these disciplines and neuroscience, so I was attracted to it immediately. At present, "systems neuroscience" has not been popular in China. We look forward to helping build and develop this interdisciplinary study."

Thus, in 2019, Mr. Coach Wei founded Neural Galaxy together with Liu Hesheng from Harvard Medical School, Robert Desimone from MIT, and Feng Guoping.

In terms of the market size for brain diseases, Coach Wei pointed out that globally, there are about 1 billion people suffering from brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and autism among children. Brain diseases account for 28% of the global burden of diseases (GBD). With the aging population progressing, brain diseases may pose a huge challenge to Chinese families and society in the future.

"In the face of this huge market, Neural Galaxy will strive for a significant breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases. As for how, Neural Galaxy will be using systems engineering methods based on the interdisciplinary "Systems Neuroscience" to promote brain science and artificial intelligence, and to overcome the world challenge of brain disorders," said Coach Wei.