Look into my eyes: Do you see early signs of Alzheimer’s?

By ISRAEL21cAugust 30, 2017

Israeli startup RetiSpec plans to build and begin testing its unique Alzheimer’s ocular scanner in the next 12 months

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Romantics claim that you can see a person’s soul through their eyes. Apparently, you can also see whether they will be suffering in the future from Alzheimer’s disease. The same biomarkers that accumulate in the brain – proteins called beta-amyloids that clump together into sticky “plaque” that are the signs of Alzheimer’s disease – appear in the retina of the eyes up to 15 years before the onset of any symptoms.

Diagnosing Alzheimer’s today is an expensive, invasive and not always readily available process, mainly utilizing PET brain imaging and lumbar puncturing. But what if all a physician had to do was plug in a portable scanner and train it on a patient’s eyes? That would save money, minimize patient discomfort and make earlier testing much more common. That’s what excites Eliav Shaked, the founder and CEO of RetiSpec, an Israeli startup that hopes to build and begin testing its unique Alzheimer’s ocular scanner in the next 12 months. RetiSpec’s scanner is hoped to identify the spectral signature of neuropathological changes indicating Alzheimer’s disease in a matter of seconds, Shaked say. -- More...

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ISRAEL21c——Bio and Archives

ISRAEL21c was founded in 2001, in the wake of the Second Intifada, to broaden public understanding of Israel beyond typical portrayals in the mainstream media.

The organization’s founders – Israeli-American technology executives – understood the great power of the Internet and developed a first-of-its kind online product with global appeal and reach.