A first of its kind brain fitness company
This year Baycrest proudly announced an exciting new venture that taps into the $1-billion plus brain fitness market and promises great hope for improved brain and cognitive health worldwide.
In partnership with MaRS , Canada’s premier innovation centre which helps science, technology and social enterprises build their companies, Baycrest has launched Cogniciti, a for-profit company that will develop and market brain fitness products to help people around the world maintain their brain and cognitive health longer in the lifespan than was ever possible in the past.
Cogniciti, the first venture of its kind for a Canadian health sciences centre focused on aging, will build on 20 years of world-renowned memory and aging science conducted by Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute.
The company will produce a suite of research-supported products, games and training protocols that target those memory and cognitive functions that matter most in our busy lives — planning, organizing, and staying focused on a task. The idea is to make the products engaging and fun so that consumers will not only benefit from them, but will enjoy using them.
“Creating a commercialized science enterprise was a natural step in the evolution of the Baycrest Centre for Brain Fitness,” notes Anthony Melman, Chair of the Baycrest Board of Directors. The Centre launched last year with the support of a $10-million investment from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, matched by an additional $10 million from private donors. “A big part of our mandate is to share our discoveries through the commercialization of our evidence-based cognitive interventions,” he says.
“There is growing scientific evidence that keeping the brain active throughout the lifespan can delay the onset of dementia,” he adds. “Even older brains retain the capacity for neurogenesis (the growth of new brain cells). And brain regions damaged by injuries such as a stroke can form new compensatory connections through a process known as neuroplasticity.”
Test-marketing will begin next year for Cogniciti’s first product, Memory@Work™. Other products in the pipeline for test-marketing in 2011 and 2012 include brain exercise games for mobile devices and the web.