Smart Monitoring for People with Epilepsy Start-up project at the University Hospital Bonn and University of Bonn to receive €2.7 million in GO-Bio next funding from the BMFTR

The PearNet project is developing special wearables—body-worn electronic devices—that give epilepsy patients advance warning of seizures and monitor and record them when they happen. The brainchild of researchers from the University Hospital Bonn and University of Bonn, it has now secured some €2.7 million in funding over three years via the GO-Bio next program run by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). The money will go toward making further preparations for spinning off the project so that its set of wearables can be launched on the biotechnology market.

Understanding and treating epilepsy better is the aim of the PearNet project, which is being led by Professor Rainer Surges, Head of the Department of Epileptology at the University Hospital Bonn, and Dr. Marcel Bausch and Dr. Arthur Jordan, joint heads of the Applied Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies working group. Surges and Bausch are also members of the University of Bonn’s Life and Health Transdisciplinary Research Area. For PearNet, they are developing an innovative network of body sensors to improve how epileptic seizures are predicted and analyzed. People living with epilepsy wear the set as they go about their daily lives, with the sensors constantly monitoring their symptoms. They record relevant biosignals, which are analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence and even take account of a patient’s individual biosignal patterns.

Mini-sensors log epilepsy symptoms day to day

“Epilepsy affects roughly 50 million people all over the world,” Bausch explains. “There’s currently a yawning gap in treatment, because patients are suffering up to 20 percent misdiagnoses and 70 percent unrecognized seizures. This is precisely where we and our innovative network of sensors can come in, as it gives us detailed information for diagnosing epilepsy faster and monitoring seizures reliably.”

Although conventional treatment also allows symptoms to be monitored effectively, he concedes, the various systems are often very expensive, not precise enough or not suited to daily use. Jordan adds: “Because the sensors are really small and can be worn discreetly on the body, our system takes measurements over an extended period and in everyday situations, while patients are able to follow their usual routines just as normal.”

One of the mini-sensors works like an electroencephalogram (EEG) in the ear and can measure brain activity using tiny electrodes inside the auditory canal. The long-term aim is to add more mini-sensors to the new set of wearables so that the system can forecast epileptic seizures better, monitor them more extensively if required and improve the therapy efficiency.

Biotech innovation at turbo speed

The highly practical PearNet project has been funded by the GO-Bio initial program since 2024, initially in the “exploratory phase” to make the underlying idea ripe for exploitation. Then came funding in the “feasibility phase” to examine whether the project could actually be put into practice and to produce a technical proof of principle. The two phases served to lay the groundwork for the next stage, aptly named GO-Bio next. In fact, PearNet’s development progressed so successfully that it was able to cut the feasibility phase short and secure its next tranche of funding, under GO-Bio next, ahead of schedule. Thus the team is now working hard to prepare a product that can be placed on the market. On their journey from the drawing board to the industry coalface, the researchers are being supported by the transfer teams from the Transfer Center enaCom and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bonn, who are assisting with funding applications, financing matters, partnerships and patent protection.

GO-Bio turns life sciences research into marketable products

The BMFTR’s GO-Bio funding (short for “Gründungsoffensive Biotechnologie,” or “biotechnology start-up drive”) is targeted at life sciences researchers with innovative ideas. Its two programs, GO-Bio initial and GO-Bio next, are tailored specifically to the many varied challenges faced in this field and are strengthening basic research with a practical bent.

Links for more information:

Website of GO-Bio next: https://www.go-bio.de/gobio/en/go-bio/go-bio-next/go-bio-next.html
Website of Professor Surges’s working group: https://www.ukbonn.de/en/epileptology/workgroups/surges-workgroup-clinical-epilepsy-research/
Website of the Bausch/Jordan Lab, part of the Applied Neurosciences and Neurotechnologies working group: https://mabausch.github.io/AppliedNeuro/
Website of the Department of Epileptology: https://www.ukbonn.de/en/epileptology/