BlinkLab (ASX:BB1) has teamed up with a college in Maine, USA to assess its capacity to leverage its tech in the field of functional neurological disorder (FND) diagnosis.
The FND label is not itself one condition but refers to a group of common neurological disorders which broadly affect movement and cognition.
The news comes only one day after the company revealed its commencement of a two year trial with a Dutch institution to gear its autism diagnosis tech towards diagnosing dementia.
BlinkLab’s overall premise is that in-phone software can be used to track eye movements of users, and that those eye movements can reliably predict anomalous behaviours associated with autism as concluded in peer reviewed journals.
Management on Wednesday informed shareholders the company’s focus would remain on autism but that the emerging field posed multiple points of inquiry worth pursuing for BlinkLab – quite literally, if they come off and there’s commercial opportunity.
The ability to conduct tests using only a mobile phone is also a benefit for the company, given that costs associated with such a trial are thus greatly reduced.
Patients with FND in Maine, New York, New Jersey and “other locations” will participate. It could run for up to 3 years, with Maine-based Bates College’s Dr. Olivia Kim leading the study. BlinkLab is hopeful it can get up to 500 patients.
“The app’s capacity to collect high-quality data in a location of the participants’ choosing will be key for reaching patients with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND),” Bates College Assistant Professor Dr. Olivia Kim said.
This will let us overcome logistical barriers that can make joining conventional, in-laboratory studies burdensome.”
Per its deal in the Netherlands on Wednesday, BlinkLab also stands to claim patent rights to any IP produced as part of the trial.
BB1 last traded at 28cps.