NZ invention a boost to baby health

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

Brain damage in premature babies will be able to be identified within hours of birth by a new device developed by New Zealand scientists.

The device, a kind of electroencephalogram (EEG), is expected to earn its Kiwi developers tens of millions of US dollars a year.

It looks like a small laptop computer on a pole and, unlike existing scanners, it can be moved easily from bedside to bedside. It is expected to cost around $US10,000 ($33,800).

A new joint venture formed to develop the device, BrainZ Instruments, has announced plans to raise $2 million to $3 million by the end of next month, mainly for clinical trials of the device in Australia and the United States.

BrainZ's chief executive, Mark Bellas, said existing brain scanners were not suitable for the 70,000 low-weight premature babies born every year in the US alone.

"There are versions that monitor full-term babies. We believe our device is superior. We are measuring white matter, which only really exists in very premature babies."

The device is being tested on premature babies at National Women's Hospital in Auckland and in Christchurch and Melbourne. After further trials, it could be on the market within a year.

The joint venture has initial backing from a company associated with Auckland University, NeuronZ (85 per cent), and one of New Zealand's biggest electronics manufacturers, TruTest (15 per cent).

Their stakes will be diluted by the new capital raised in NZ and Australia and possibly further afield.

NeuronZ's acting chief executive, Dr Peter Gluckman, said the device, conceived by Auckland University associate professor Chris Williams, took 15 years to develop.

"It's got lots of different uses, from monitoring babies to make sure they are not getting brain damage, to monitoring therapies, to medical-legal uses," he said.

"Sales in the tens of millions of US dollars per year are possible."

NeuronZ is majority-owned by Auckland University's commercial arm, Uniservices.

Minority stakes are held by Australia's Macquarie Bank, Dr Robin Congreve's Oceania and Eastern Group and the NZ Seed Fund, a Uniservices initiative whose investors include The Warehouse's Stephen Tindall and the Todd family.

Neuronz

Trutest