From ER Doctor to AI-Driven Brain Health Pioneer: Gao Yan's Unmet Need-Focused CNS Startup Files for IPO

In 2003, Gao Yan, clad in a white coat, moved swiftly through the emergency room of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital. The air was thick with the scent of disinfectant, punctuated by the rhythmic beeping of medical instruments. Working in the emergency department of such a premier Grade A tertiary hospital, she was sometimes so busy that she could not even take a sip of water throughout the entire morning.

In 2023, Gao Yan remained busy. Dressed in professional attire, she shuttled between the Brain Science Institute and major hospitals, all because she had embarked on her third entrepreneurial venture in 2020—Weiming Naonao, dedicated to precision diagnosis and treatment of AI-driven brain diseases.She said, “Being a CEO of a startup is much like being an emergency department physician. If a day goes exceptionally smoothly, I even find it hard to believe.”

Why did she choose to start a business? And why did she shift her focus from general internal medicine and surgery to brain diseases? It all begins with “a physician’s intuition.”

Approximately 20 years ago, Gao Yan, who worked at a hospital, dealt daily with conditions such as acute abdomen, craniocerebral trauma, and tumors.

It was an era when people turned pale at the mere mention of cancer; only “fatal” chronic diseases could capture patients’ attention, while brain disorders that merely appeared as “unhappiness,” “forgetfulness,” or “mischievousness” rarely drew any notice. Particularly in the early stages of these conditions, neither family members nor patients themselves would hardly detect any abnormalities.

However, as time has passed, Gao Yan has noticed a year-on-year increase in the number of patients with brain disorders seeking medical consultation.Psychological issues are closely linked to many internal medicine and surgical conditions. Throughout her subsequent two successful entrepreneurial ventures, she maintained a keen focus on and sensitivity to brain disorders. She furthered her studies at the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, dedicating herself to investigating the interconnections among brain disorders, psychological problems, and other psychosomatic comorbidities, as well as exploring urgent clinical needs.

This is not a narrow view; in fact, the large population of patients with brain diseases in China has become a significant social issue that cannot be ignored. According to statistics,In 2021, the number of patients with various brain disorders in China approached 130 million, including 9.83 million with Alzheimer’s disease, over 2 million children under the age of 12 with autism spectrum disorder (with 200,000 new cases annually), and more than 50 million individuals with depression.

After conducting in-depth interviews with nearly 100 experts and scholars in the fields of clinical medicine, brain science, and artificial intelligence, Gao Yan discovered that the core challenge in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases lies in elucidating disease mechanisms. Furthermore, numerous unresolved issues persist across the continuum of care, ranging from the widespread implementation of early screening and improving diagnostic accuracy to etiologic diagnosis and treatment.The vast market and the challenges awaiting resolution have created a blue ocean of opportunities., especially after a family member was diagnosed with a brain disease, she became even more determined to change careers.

Transitioning from a clinician to a CEO, she had to learn everything related to commercialization from scratch. However, her clinical background also brought her many advantages—More attuned to scientific research than entrepreneurs, and more cognizant of clinical pain points than researchers.This “insider expertise” has also shaped the unique appeal of the Weiming Naonao team.

Weiming Naonao’s research team comprises AI technology specialists, neuroscience researchers, and clinical physicians. Furthermore, it collaborates with numerous renowned research institutes to ensure technological advancement. In the field of neuroscience, Weiming Naonao andShenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of SciencesJointly established the “CAS-Weiming Joint Laboratory for Brain Disorders and Brain-Computer Interaction,” focusing on research in brain disorders and brain-computer interaction, and continuously advancing the translation of neuroscience research achievements.

At the clinical level, Weiming Brain-Brain andBeijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical UniversityHospitalA partnership has been established to identify research directions from clinical practice. Professor Wang Gang, President of Beijing Anding Hospital and a specialist in clinical medical research on psychiatric and psychological disorders, also serves as a scientific advisor to Weiming Naonao.Collaboration among medical professionals, engineers, and clinicians has established a closed-loop system for the scientific research and development of Weiming Brain-Brain products.

Gao Yan’s clinical experience led her to establish “addressing clinical needs” as the foundational direction for Weiming Naonao’s product development from the outset, and the establishment of Weiming Naonao“Multi-dimensional Multi-omics MDMM^TM“Precision Digital Diagnosis and Treatment Technologies for Brain Diseases”, it is even more inseparable from the collaboration between brain science and AI. Based on this, Weiming Brain has been committed to leveraging the power of interdisciplinary approaches to address the critical challenges in treating brain diseases.

There is a wide variety of brain disorders, among which depression is one of the most easily overlooked. The manifestations of depression are primarily concentrated on the patient’s internal emotional and symptomatic experience; unless actively disclosed, even the closest family members may fail to detect any abnormalities. Consequently, few patients receive professional medical intervention during the early stages of depression.

However, with rising social pressures and anxiety, intertwined with numerous complex factors, public attention to depression has been increasingly heightened. In particular, the growing incidence of psychological issues among children and adolescents, coupled with the frequent occurrence of severe adverse events, has made early and precise diagnosis and treatment of pediatric and adolescent depression not only an urgent clinical need but also a significant societal challenge. As a mother of three, Gao Yan deeply feels this substantial social responsibility and has therefore designated AI-driven precise diagnosis and treatment of depression as a core development pipeline for Weiming Brain-Brain.

Currently, modern medicine still finds it difficult to provide a detailed and accurate etiological explanation for depression, so clinical diagnosis of depression mainly relies onSymptomatology of DependenceMake judgments and present them using scales. However, symptom-based assessments are subject to considerable uncertainty and influenced by subjective factors.

Gao Yan used the most common acute abdomen case in the emergency department previously—“abdominal pain”—as an example to explain this phenomenon: “Abdominal pain is one of the most common symptoms (chief complaints) in the emergency department, with varying causes (etiologies). For instance, appendicitis, intestinal obstruction, and acute pancreatitis can all cause abdominal pain.”Only by addressing the root cause can the problem be truly resolved.“Depression and abdominal pain are both merely final outcomes (symptoms); only by identifying the correct underlying cause can treatment be more effective.”

Although the neural circuits involved in the pathogenesis of depression have been clinically elucidated, the underlying causes of depression remain elusive. Potential contributing factors include genetics, long-term lifestyle influences, sleep disturbances, menopause, and even medication side effects. To achieve precision treatment, it is essential to meticulously dissect these complexities to identify the root cause.

Based on this,Weiming Naonao has established an AI precision medicine technology platform through artificial intelligence algorithmic models.(hereinafter referred to as the Precision Medicine Platform). The platform innovatively introduces the concepts of digital biomarkers, biological biomarkers, cognitive-behavioral biomarkers, and multi-omics biomarkers, analyzing data from patients’ imaging, speech, genomic proteins, and even behavioral patterns, and integrating them"Dimensionality Reduction" into Standardized DataThus, the diagnosis of depression has shifted from symptom assessment based on subjective judgment to rigorous and accurate data-driven criteria.

The precision medicine platform is able to reduce “behavior” to “data” primarily because it is backed by a powerful and comprehensive database. In Weiming Naonao’s database, in addition toClinical consultation data collected through clinical collaborationsIn addition, there areMonitoring Data Obtained from the Brain-Computer Interface Terminal, and throughDigital Target Data Obtained via Electrophysiological Technologies. Together, these three elements have established a data moat for Weiming Brain that is difficult for homogeneous competitors to surpass.

Gao Yan stated, “The precision medicine platform is backed by hundreds of thousands of real-world clinical cases, enabling our big data models to better align with the current landscape of brain diseases in China and achieve precise diagnosis.”

After the precision medicine platform distinguishes and diagnoses different subtypes of depression, Weiming Brain’s “AI Doctor” can design personalized targeted treatment plans based on individual patients’ symptoms. By leveraging personalized neuromodulation and personalized neurofeedback technologies, it achieves precise clinical treatment for depression.

Currently, in addition to depression, Weiming Naonao is also actively expanding its strategic layout.Alzheimer's Disease, Bipolar Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Sleep Disordersnine pipelines, aiming to achieve comprehensive coverage of central nervous system diseases.

Although digital therapeutics demonstrate significant efficacy in patients with mild central nervous system disorders, their effectiveness is less satisfactory for those with moderate to severe conditions, necessitating combination with pharmacological treatment to achieve the desired therapeutic outcomes.

Currently, most neurological diseases still suffer from low drug contribution and low treatment satisfaction.There remains a significant gap in the research and development of central nervous system (CNS) drugs, both in terms of drug categories and quantity.. Moreover, CNS drugs often suffer from a “one-size-fits-all” approach, wherein they suppress all neural activity rather than targeting the specific underlying pathology, resulting in suboptimal therapeutic outcomes.

Tracing back to the market side, the primary reason lies in the fact that companies focusing on CNS drugs are few and far between. According to a report by the ABPI (Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry), compared with the global38%R&D funding is being invested in the fields of oncology and immunotherapy,The CNS sector attracted only 7% of the funding.

Pharmaceutical companies have shied away from CNS drug development due to its numerous challenges: difficulties in target identification, complex disease mechanisms, and low reliability of animal models. The success rate for CNS drug development stands at only 6%, less than half that of other therapeutic areas.Research and development (R&D) entails higher investment and risk for enterprises.

However, the emergence of the Weiming Brain Precision Medicine Platform may fundamentally address the pain point of a “one-size-fits-all” approach in CNS drug development. Leveraging the platform’s ability to accurately characterize the distinct advantages of different central nervous system disease subtypes, relevant disease targets can be readily identified. This advancement canEffectively Enhance the Clinical Efficacy of CNS Drug Development, thereby reducing the risks and costs of new drug development, shortening the time to market, enhancing the pharmacoeconomic value, and supporting CNS new drug R&D from multiple dimensions.

Gao Yan told Chengguo Bureau, “The primary challenge in developing drugs for central nervous system (CNS) diseases lies in the insufficient understanding of these conditions. Once specific therapeutic targets are clearly identified, the efficiency of drug development is bound to improve. This is precisely where the advantage of precision medicine platforms resides.”

Currently, the Weiming Brain Precision Medicine Platform has completed preclinical trials and entered the stage of applying for registration certification, and inMultiple Hospitals and Pharmaceutical CompaniesLaunched a small-scale pilot collaboration. In the field of drug R&D, Weiming Brain-Brain has already partnered withJohnson & Johnson...has partnered with renowned pharmaceutical companies to develop next-generation CNS drugs, breaking through the dilemma of a "one-size-fits-all" approach.

In Gao Yan’s view, Weiming Naonao is not limited to central nervous system diseases. In the future, its precision medicine platform will take central nervous system diseases as the main thread and expand horizontally,Continue to explore broader dimensions of cerebral diseases, including stroke and cerebral thrombosis., with the aim of achieving a closed loop in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases.

From leaving a top-tier tertiary hospital to embarking on consecutive entrepreneurial ventures, Gao Yan is less unafraid of challenges and more one who enjoys them. While other disease markets are heavily discussing “involution” and fearing competition, Gao Yan says:"The brain disease diagnosis and treatment market welcomes more friends to join."It is difficult for any single enterprise to cover every aspect; only through collective efforts can more patients benefit. Today, Weiming Brain is delivering “compassionate” precision CNS therapies in its own way, with the hope that patients with brain disorders will no longer feel alone on their treatment journey.