- Deepinder Goyal introduced the scientist team behind the BrainFlow wearable technology
- BrainFlow enables continuous measurement of cerebral blood flow outside medical settings
- The technology was validated against TD-NIRS in a study with 60 participants
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal has unveiled the team of scientists behind Temple's BrainFlow, a wearable system designed to continuously measure blood flow to the brain. Goyal introduced four members of the team working on the technology, Dr Divya Gulati and Dr Sanchit Gupta from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Dr Yukti Chopra from SISSA Trieste in Italy, and Nitish Kumar from IIT Bombay.
“This team led, built, and validated the first continuous, wearable measurement of blood flow to the brain,” Goyal said in a post on X.
Goyal said India has traditionally celebrated actors, cricketers and, more recently, entrepreneurs and founders, adding that he wished scientists were celebrated in the same way.
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The researchers have backgrounds spanning systems neuroscience, neuroimaging, computational cognitive neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces and cerebral blood-flow research. Goyal said the team had led the development, construction and validation of the wearable brain blood-flow measurement technology.
What Is Temple BrainFlow?
The technology, called BrainFlow, is aimed at addressing a key limitation in conventional brain blood-flow measurement methods. According to Goyal, the brain uses around 20% of the body's blood supply. He said that blood supply declines as people age, but that it has historically been difficult to continuously measure changes in brain blood flow outside specialised medical settings.
Goyal noted that even hospitals typically capture only a snapshot of brain blood flow rather than continuously monitoring it. “Measuring and maintaining brain flow could be one of the most important health and longevity interventions of our time,” he said.
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Temple is a health and longevity-focused company founded by Goyal, with research centred on technologies intended to better understand biological processes associated with healthy ageing.
BrainFlow Validation Study
Goyal also addressed questions over whether the BrainFlow wearable measures blood flow in the brain itself or only changes in the scalp. He said Temple conducted a second validation study using time-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-NIRS).
TD-NIRS is a technique used in neuroimaging research that can help distinguish changes in blood volume in cerebral tissue from changes occurring in superficial tissues such as the scalp. According to Goyal, Temple compared BrainFlow measurements against TD-NIRS in a validation study involving 60 participants.
However, the details shared publicly so far do not include the complete findings of the validation study.
Focus On Longevity
The BrainFlow project is part of Temple's wider focus on health and longevity. Goyal said the company is working on what he described as a problem that sits “upstream” of other health concerns — extending healthy human life.
Continuous monitoring of cerebral blood flow could provide researchers with data on how circulation to the brain changes over time. It could also potentially help researchers study the relationship between cerebral blood flow, ageing and other biological processes. However, the broader implications of continuously tracking brain blood flow for health and longevity will depend on further research, independent validation and clinical evidence.
Goyal said he was proud of the Temple team and expected the company to work towards more technological breakthroughs in the future.
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