SBIR-STTR Award

Dandelion™ was founded in 2020 to develop digital therapeutics for neurologic and psychiatric disorders by interacting with the brain via the eyes. The goal of this SBIR is to design and test a safe, effective, and non- addictive pain-relief digital therapeutic in the form of visual stimuli. The platform will use artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time biofeedback to “read” (decipher) brain signals and “write” to (neuromodulate) the brain with rapid-changing visual stimuli composed of optimized patterns, colors, and frequencies. This is the first attempt to use AI-guided visual stimuli as a treatment for pain. In 2017, 11 million of the 191 million prescriptions written for opioid pain medications were misused, and 35% of opioid-related deaths (nearly 17,000 cases) were connected to these prescriptions. In the search for safe, effective alternatives, a range of opioid-sparing interventions have been developed through pharmacologic, clinical, and digitized behavioral platforms but none has proved fully successful. Dandelion hypothesizes that the complexity and variability of pain demands a therapeutic approach that mimics the way the brain itself processes and integrates data for pain perception. Through its novel neuromodulatory platform, using artificial intelligence to parameterize potentially useful visual information, Dandelion will develop a safe, low-cost digital therapeutic that patients can view on a smartphone or tablet for immediate pain relief. By correlating stimulus with response across different types of pain, Dandelion also hopes to build a pain-perception map of wider applicability. In Phase I a prototype AI-guided platform will be developed that can synthesize novel stimulation combinations and optimize them based on feedback from an array of biosensors; their efficacy in reducing the perception of induced pain will then be tested in healthy subjects. In Phase II, Dandelion will develop the prototype into a commercially available product and test the pain-relief digital therapeutic for efficacy and generalizability in randomized controlled trials. The commercial opportunity is estimated to be $5.9 billion.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
PROJECT NARRATIVE Dandelion is developing a non-addictive pain treatment that patients can view on their smartphone or tablet for immediate relief. This effective, low-cost digital therapeutic could bring relief to the millions of untreated or undertreated Americans suffering from pain.

Project Terms:
Pain management ; Pain Control ; Pain Therapy ; pain treatment ; Opioid Analgesics ; opiate analgesia ; opiate analgesic ; opiate pain medication ; opiate pain reliever ; opioid analgesia ; opioid anesthetic ; opioid pain medication ; opioid pain reliever ; opioid painkiller ; Artificial Intelligence ; AI system ; Computer Reasoning ; Machine Intelligence ; Mental disorders ; Mental health disorders ; Psychiatric Disease ; Psychiatric Disorder ; mental illness ; psychiatric illness ; psychological disorder ; Biofeedback ; Brain ; Brain Nervous System ; Encephalon ; Cognitive Therapy ; Cognition Therapy ; Cognitive Psychotherapy ; cognitive behavior intervention ; cognitive behavior modification ; cognitive behavior therapy ; cognitive behavioral intervention ; cognitive behavioral modification ; cognitive behavioral therapy ; cognitive behavioral treatment ; Color ; Electrocardiogram ; ECG ; EKG ; Electrocardiography ; Eye ; Eyeball ; Feedback ; Goals ; Maps ; Marketing ; Methods ; nervous system disorder ; Nervous System Diseases ; Neurologic Disorders ; Neurological Disorders ; neurological disease ; Pain ; Painful ; Patients ; Perception ; Pharmacology ; Photic Stimulation ; Visual Stimulation ; Research Personnel ; Investigators ; Researchers ; Signal Transduction ; Cell Communication and Signaling ; Cell Signaling ; Intracellular Communication and Signaling ; Signal Transduction Systems ; Signaling ; biological signal transduction ; Computer software ; Software ; Tablets ; Technology ; Testing ; Time ; Writing ; Meditation ; base ; computational neuroscience ; Clinical ; Phase ; Physiological ; Physiologic ; Ensure ; Stimulus ; Visual ; Licensing ; Opioid ; Opiates ; analog ; Randomized Controlled Trials ; Therapeutic ; Frequencies ; Complex ; Pattern ; System ; Services ; magnetic ; Magnetism ; American ; visual stimulus ; neural control ; neural regulation ; neuromodulation ; neuromodulatory ; neuroregulation ; neural ; relating to nervous system ; biological sensor ; Biosensor ; novel ; response ; Intervention Strategies ; interventional strategy ; Intervention ; Dandelion ; Taraxacum ; Cell Phone ; Cellular Telephone ; iPhone ; smart phone ; smartphone ; Cellular Phone ; data processing ; computerized data processing ; Pharmaceutical Agent ; Pharmaceuticals ; Pharmacological Substance ; Pharmacologic Substance ; distraction ; Symptoms ; Data ; Reproducibility ; Small Business Innovation Research Grant ; SBIR ; Small Business Innovation Research ; Process ; Therapeutic Effect ; Electroencephalogram ; Behavioral ; cost ; digital ; design ; designing ; Treatment Efficacy ; intervention efficacy ; therapeutic efficacy ; therapy efficacy ; Outcome ; therapy design ; intervention design ; treatment design ; commercial application ; prototype ; visual information ; Secure ; Pain intensity ; mobile computing ; mobile platform ; mobile technology ; opioid mortality ; opiate deaths ; opiate mortality ; opioid deaths ; opioid overdose death ; opioid related death ; wearable sensor technology ; body sensor ; body worn sensor ; wearable biosensor ; wearable sensor ; wearable system ; wireless sensor technology ; pain reduction ; reduce pain ; pain relief ; relieve pain ; pain perception ; clinical pain ; deep learning ; opioid sparing ; complex data ; digital treatment ; digital therapeutics ; digital therapy ;