How is OBI bringing lab to life > Neurotech products and services


As a teenager, Mehran Talebinejad, Co-Founder & CEO, NeuroQore, got interested in understanding the brain, and particularly depression, for one reason alone – his grandma. He wanted to offer help for her depression but due to a lack of care services and delays in finding the right drug treatment, coupled with the stigma associated with depression, he was unable to support her in the way he wanted. It was in that moment that he decided to take matters into his own hands – someone had to fundamentally transform mental health treatments – and it had to be him. Mehran went on to study biomedical engineering with a focus on the brain. Fascinated with brain-machine interfaces, he had an idea that evolved into his company – NeuroQore.

“As a young adult, I was surprised that psychiatry was so remote from internal medicine” says Mehran. “A person living with treatment-resistant depression could not find any relief back then – the societal pressures, deliberate isolation and the lack of knowledge around depression were enough to cause serious mental health damage.”

There are plenty more entrepreneurial stories similar to Mehran’s, which is why OBI is proud to play a crucial role in supporting companies that are developing cutting-edge technologies that will help individuals and families lead fuller lives. By helping connect these innovators to our network of investors and researchers, we can grow and promote a thriving neurotech cluster within Ontario. Currently, our growing portfolio of 77 neurotech companies includes NeuroQore, whose ground-breaking technology, First Dawn, has the potential to help individuals living with treatment-resistant depression.

First Dawn is a novel repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) therapy system developed for faster and more effective treatment of depression, suicidal ideation and various other brain conditions. Unlike electroconvulsive therapy, another treatment option for depression, rTMS does not require anesthesia or have any cognitive side effects, and presents a solution for the significant gap in effective treatment options.

“My grandma’s depression caused people around her to actually further isolate her because depression has a stigma attached to it – even more so, some 40 years ago” says Mehran. “I want this thinking to stop – there is a need to fundamentally transform mental health and cause a paradigm shift – and so I knew it was up to me to take action.”

OBI has supported NeuroQore’s development of First Dawn, and its eight-year journey with funding through its ONtrepreneurs, NERD and Internship Programs. Their collaborative, evidence-based research efforts, married with unmatched technological expertise, is a perfect example of OBI’s vision of bringing science and innovation to life. More recently, with further investment from OBI directed towards product development and its clinical validation, NeuroQore aims to accelerate this novel technology to market within the next two to three years.

Researchers and healthcare practitioners predict depression rates to increase due to the current pandemic, making fast, effective treatment even more imperative. “Our purpose has been to find a quick, effective, evidence-based alternative therapy for individuals living with major depressive disorder and suicidal ideation – and we have found just that through NeuroQore’s First Dawn,” says Talebinejad. “Recognizing that the mental health crisis is set to increase rapidly during this time of COVID-19 places further importance on the next steps of clinical development and testing – and help even more people than I initially anticipated.”

“Our purpose has been to find a quick, effective, evidence-based alternative therapy for individuals living with major depressive disorder and suicidal ideation – and we have found just that through NeuroQore’s First Dawn. Recognizing that the mental health crisis is set to increase rapidly during this time of COVID-19 places further importance on the next steps of clinical development and testing – and help even more people than I initially anticipated.”

Mehran Talebinejad, Co-Founder & CEO, NeuroQore

In collaboration with Dr. Kathleen Pajer, Chief of Psychiatry at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and Dr. Robert Chen, Senior Neurologist, Toronto Western Hospital, NeuroQore is preparing for the study of First Dawn in adolescents with treatment-resistant depression. NeuroQore’s First Dawn is just one example of how OBI connects entrepreneurs with a team of experts in both research and industry to give important innovations the legitimacy needed to help investment and development occur at a faster rate.

Major depression affects close to 2,000,000 Canadians annually and is responsible for more than 3,500 deaths per year in Canada alone. To address this concern, OBI is strategically investing in projects that help entrepreneurs like Talebinejad who are working to help individuals with brain disorders live fuller lives.

Learn more about OBI’s Portfolio Companies and its NERD and ONtrepreneurs programs.