DENVER & SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aural Analytics, Inc., a privately-held digital health company focused on building the world’s most advanced speech analytics platform, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope and a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life-changing results, today announced plans to collaborate on research in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The TGen-sponsored clinical trial will assess recently-diagnosed ALS patients (<12 months) undergoing acupuncture treatment and will track blood-based biomarkers and vocal biomarkers (components of speech) associated with acupuncture treatment in study participants.
The speech samples will be collected via a mobile application developed by Aural Analytics to measure subtle speech changes in patients by tapping directly into various nervous system functions to track their progress and response to acupuncture treatment.
“Integrating the Aural Analytics platform technology to measure vocal biomarkers of the ALS clinical trial participants will generate data that will allow us to leverage the latest computational techniques in hopes of assessing ALS progression and treatment response,” said Dr. Winnie Liang, Associate Professor of TGen’s Neurogenomics Division.
Aural Analytics speech analytics platform technology will provide a series of objective outcome measures of speech production extracted from the clinical trial participant’s speech samples. The analysis will provide insight into key areas known to change with disease including, but not limited to, motor control and aspects of cognitive linguistics.
“This collaboration utilizes our platform’s ALS module and will provide study researchers a panel of objective, clinically-relevant measures of speech change. We will also provide an easy-to-use mobile application that allows patients to comply with study requirements from the comfort of their home, an especially important need for patients with this difficult neurological disease,” said Daniel Jones, co-founder and chief executive officer of Aural Analytics, Inc. “TGen is a world-renowned and highly regarded leader in independent research and we very much look forward to working with them on this study.”
ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, slowly robs the body of its ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. The Aural Analytics mobile first, patient-centric platfom technology is easy-to-use, low-cost and analytics are available in real-time. Speech data will be collected non-invasively, in-home, every week through the app downloaded on participants’ personal phones or tablets, easing the significant burden on ALS patients and their caregivers for whom travel to clinical trial sites can be difficult.
Aural Analytics, Inc. is a privately held digital health company developing the world’s most advanced speech analytics platform, built on a foundation of 25 years of speech neuroscience research and data. The Company’s platform technology is based on pioneering research from Arizona State University and reinforced by multiple high-caliber peer-reviewed publications. Winners of the 2017 Global SCRIP Award for Best Technology in Clinical Trials, Aural Analytics’ first-to-market technology platform powers health applications all over the world. The Company maintains headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information, please visit auralanalytics.com or follow Aural Analytics on Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium and Facebook.
About TGen, an affiliate of City of Hope
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life-changing results. TGen is affiliated with City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases: www.cityofhope.org. This precision medicine affiliation enables both institutes to complement each other in research and patient care, with City of Hope providing a significant clinical setting to advance scientific discoveries made by TGen. TGen is focused on helping patients with neurological disorders, cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases through cutting-edge translational research (the process of rapidly moving research toward patient benefit). TGen physicians and scientists work to unravel the genetic components of both common and complex rare diseases in adults and children. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities worldwide, TGen makes a substantial contribution to help our patients through efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. For more information, visit: www.tgen.org. Follow TGen on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @TGen.
