What if a video game could treat a player's cognitive disorder? It may sound like a sci-fi fantasy, but a company developing such a platform has secured the backing of Shire PLC, entered into a partnership with Pfizer Inc. and has recently raised $30.5 million in equity investments from JAZZ Venture Partners, Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund, PureTech Health and others.
Co-founded in 2011 by PureTech, Akili Interactive Labs Inc. went on a search for software-based treatment for cognitive disorders, which led to it licensing. Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD’s technology from the University of California, San Francisco. This technology that was later published in Nature as a "new neurological target for attention and executive function improvement," is the basis of Akili's product, Project: EVO