Both partners were able to successfully demonstrate the valuable contribution of the neuroimaging software NICARA™ in the context of clinical trials for neurodegenerative disorders. NICARA offers automated processing and integrative ROI-based analyses of surface-based morphometry, DTI tractography and fMRI time series correlations.

Biomax and NeuroScios are presenting at AD/PD meeting 2022 in Barcelona from 15-20 March 2022.

NICARA allows for a detailed region-specific analysis of drug effects using surface-based morphometry of 360 cortical regions of interest (Rechberger et al., 2022). Drug-dependent alterations of brain morphometry can be correlated to clinical parameters, Tau accumulations from PET imaging or even expression of target genes from post-mortem data (Human Allen Brain Atlas) and may lead to extremely powerful biomarkers of neurodegeneration. Moreover, NICARA automatically homogenizes surface-based morphometry with surface-based DTI tractography and fMRI time series correlations enabling a sophisticated structural and functional connectome analysis at unprecedented scale (Chen et al., 2021). In this way, biomarkers of neurodegeneration do not only consider brain atrophy but additionally indicate network decomposition, functional reorganization and potential reserve capacities of the brain enabling the most precise prediction of cognitive decline that is scientifically possible today. Connectome analyses are of particular interest for clinical trials for monitoring synaptotoxicity in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease and the effect of drug candidates such as anti-amyloid antibodies or anti-neuroinflammatory drugs on brain networks and cognition.

“NICARA will be a game changer in the evaluation of clinical trials of drug candidates as completely novel powerful and sensitive biomarkers will become possible. With Biomax, we have found a partner who supports our customers in precisely those areas that have remained unachieved for them until now,” explained Manfred Windisch, CEO and President of NeuroScios.

“We are very pleased that NeuroScios has chosen us as a partner to conduct clinical studies in the field of CNS diseases”, added Dr. Klaus Heumann, CEO of Biomax Informatics. “The associated appreciation of NICARA is a clear signal for us that we create a clear added value for all our customers in the field of clinical trials with this innovative neuroimaging software.”