Cognito and Ochsner join forces to explore how cutting-edge treatments for neurodegenerative diseases can be rolled out in clinical practice.
Neurotech firm Cognito Therapeutics today announced a new collaboration with US healthcare provider Ochsner Health to test how emerging Alzheimer’s therapies can be integrated into real-world clinical settings.
Dubbed a “Brain Health Collaboratory,” the initiative will assess Cognito’s investigational non-invasive Alzheimer’s treatment platform through Ochsner’s network, spanning 47 hospitals and hundreds of care sites across the Gulf South region. By embedding an experimental therapy into a health system that serves both urban and rural populations, the partners aim to generate evidence on clinical outcomes and how new treatments can be deployed at scale.
“This new collaboratory affords us the opportunity to pair emerging neurotechnology with real-world clinical care to better understand how we can slow cognitive decline, improve patients’ lives and open new therapeutic pathways for other neurological diseases in the future,” said Ochsner’s head of neurology, Dr David Houghton.
The initiative will leverage Cognito’s investigational Spectris device, which delivers synchronized light and sound stimulation intended to influence brain activity. The approach is based on research suggesting that Alzheimer’s disease is associated with disruptions in gamma oscillations – brain wave patterns linked to memory and cognition. By stimulating these rhythms through sensory pathways, the system is designed to support neural network function and potentially slow the structural and functional decline seen in the disease.
Having demonstrated in an early clinical trial that patients receiving treatment with Spectris showed slower cognitive and functional decline, alongside a marked reduction in brain volume loss, Cognito is currently awaiting results from a larger pivotal trial, expected to deliver top-line data later this year.
In preparation for the product’s eventual use in clinical practice, the new Ochsner partnership aims to develop a “Brain Health Index,” a framework aimed at tracking cognitive performance, disease progression and treatment response. The partners also plan to study how Spectris could be incorporated into care pathways for patients experiencing cognitive decline, including those covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, and will examine the financial implications of introducing non-invasive neuromodulation therapies into value-based care models.
“Partnerships like this are essential to ensuring that new therapies can reach patients not just in major academic centers, but across entire healthcare systems that serve both urban and rural communities,” said Cognito CEO Christian Howell. “Expanding access to patients is critical to generating real-world evidence and ultimately delivering new options for people living with Alzheimer’s disease.”
This is the second Brain Health Collaboratory announced by Cognito, following a similar initiative announced with the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute last year. Earlier this month, the company announced an oversubscribed $105 million Series C financing round intended to support the completion of clinical development, regulatory review and a planned commercial launch of Spectris in 2027.
