Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

The eye as a window to the brain

Project description

A technology for the ‘brain’s window’

Brain diseases are one of the current major challenges in healthcare. With the increase in life expectancy and ageing population, they are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death worldwide. The greatest unmet needs, however, are improved and more cost-effective diagnostic and monitoring tools. The EU-funded NeuroRetina project is developing software solutions to efficiently process retina image data for neurological applications. The team uses the retina as ‘a window to the brain’ and an already established hardware imaging tool to capture retinal images in less than 5 minutes. The data is then analysed with Nocturne’s technology, and a report is generated for the physician, removing the technical barriers and providing unique insights.

Objective

Nocturne GmbH, founded in 2018, is a spin-off from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany developing software solutions to efficiently process retina image data for neurological applications at scale across devices using advanced AI-based analysis. The innovative and unique technology developed tackles one the current major challenges in healthcare, the rapidly increasing burden of brain diseases. With the increase of life expectancy and aging population neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death worldwide. The greatest unmet needs are better, faster and more cost-effective diagnostic and monitoring tools that could be widely available and have the potential to detect these diseases at the earliest stage in order to delay disability and provide each patient with a personalized treatment.
To address this the team of Nocturne identified two major opportunities, the use of the retina as a window to the brain, and an already established on the market hardware imaging technology, cost-effective, widely available with no burden for the patient that can capture retinal images in less than 5 minutes.
With its product, Nocturne addresses customers in pharmaceutical research, academia, and clinical care. In Germany alone, more than 1 million patients suffer from relevant diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and others. We estimate the annual market volume in Germany alone at 350 million€, in Europe at 2 billion€.
At market entry, Nocturne product is a CE-certified local installable web service, which accepts data from standard retinal imaging devices.
The data are then analyzed with Nocturne’s technology, and a report is generated for the physician. The pricing is based on a pay-per-analysis, a model commonly used, for example, in radiology.
Our focus is by removing the technical barriers and by providing unique insights into the diseases to enable better disease management and patient care.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIE-2021-SCALEUP-01

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

NOCTURNE GMBH
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 75 000,00
Address
SCHONHAUSER ALLEE 177
10119 BERLIN
Germany

See on map

SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Berlin Berlin Berlin
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0