Patent issued to device with potential to detect early symptoms of Alzheimer’s, cognitive impairment

The University of Maine was recently issued a patent, US 10,244,977, for a device that detects brain injury by measuring sleep movement patterns. This technology will be licensed by Activas Diagnostics, a UMaine spin-off company.

The invention is a fitted mattress sheet equipped with more than a dozen sensors that will allow it to gather information about a person’s sleep-wake and respiratory patterns while a person is sleeping in the comfort of their own home rather than in a sleep study facility. The SleepMove monitoring system has the potential to detect early symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease.

The UMaine inventors are Marie Hayes, professor of neuroscience, and Ali Abedi, assistant vice president for research, and professor of electrical and computer engineering. Together, they formed Activas Diagnostics to commercialize the technology. The company has already received Maine Technology Institute funding and last year was awarded $1 million from the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to continue product and market development. Activas Diagnostics is located in the UpStart Center for Entrepreneurship and participates in UMaine’s business incubation program. The company currently has 10 employees.

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