Neural Galaxy's Wei Ke-Cheng Unveils POINT Therapy: A Next-Generation Innovation for Repairing Brain Functional Networks in Neurological Disorders

Humanity’s exploration of the brain has never ceased. Brain science research is not only a hotspot at the forefront of international technology but also the “final frontier” for understanding nature and humanity itself. Currently, there is a large global population affected by brain disorders. Conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease not only cause long-term physical and psychological distress to patients and their families but also impose a substantial economic burden on society. Although major economies worldwide have invested significant resources in the field of brain science, research progress remains relatively slow, and effective therapies are lacking for most brain disorders. The primary reason lies in the brain’s high complexity and individual variability, which have hindered a proper understanding of the mechanisms underlying brain diseases.

At the recently concluded 7th Future Healthcare 100 Summit, co-hosted by VCBeat and VB100, Wei Kecheng, CEO of UBrain Galaxy, shared recent research breakthroughs and clinical achievements in his keynote address, offering inspiration to peers dedicated to the treatment of brain disorders.Wei Kecheng stated that analyzing the pathogenesis of brain diseases at the functional level for different individuals can lead to a correct understanding of these conditions, and that treating brain diseases can be achieved by repairing brain functional networks.

 Wei Kecheng, Co-founder and CEO of UBrain Galaxy

Brain disorders are characterized by two major features: first, a large patient population. Statistics show that there are approximately 1 billion patients with brain disorders worldwide; in China alone, each type of disorder affects anywhere from several million to over 100 million individuals. Second, most brain disorders currently lack effective treatments, and clinical diagnosis and therapy have seen limited progress over the past few decades, with very few breakthroughs achieving clinical translation. Treating brain disorders has thus become a global challenge, with the core issue lying in understanding their underlying mechanisms. The mission of U-Brain Galaxy is to strive for scientific breakthroughs to overcome this global challenge of brain disorders.

As the integration of scientific and technological advancements with industrial revolution accelerates, knowledge and methodologies from a single discipline are no longer sufficient to solve major scientific challenges. Interdisciplinary science often creates new growth opportunities and has the potential to yield significant scientific breakthroughs. UniBrain Galaxy possesses distinct advantages in interdisciplinary backgrounds, primarily manifested in signal processing, neuroscience, computing, mathematics, and systems engineering. Professor Hesheng Liu, the Chief Scientist, achieved groundbreaking progress in brain function research at Harvard Medical School, while several other co-founders also attained remarkable achievements at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

UBrain Galaxy’s first breakthrough, personalized Brain Function Sectors (pBFS), is currently the only method worldwide capable of precisely mapping individual brain function distributions. The team initially conducted their research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), jointly affiliated with Harvard Medical School and MIT. In 2015, they produced the first-ever map of individual brain function distribution, publishing findings that sparked considerable excitement in the scientific community. Harvard Medical School published a commentary describing this advancement as a turning point in neuroimaging, highlighting its substantial potential clinical value. In retrospect, pBFS was still in its early stages at that time, delineating only a dozen or so whole-brain functional networks. Currently, the technology has been expanded to map more than two hundred brain functional networks.

The second breakthrough lies in the first-ever demonstration of the highly individualized nature of brain functional organization. For a long time, the scientific and medical communities operated under the assumption that brain functional layouts were largely consistent across individuals. However, over a decade of research by Unilumin Galaxy has proven this prior assumption incorrect. Unilumin has discovered that an individual’s brain functional organization is more personalized than their fingerprints. Taking the language areas of the brain as an example, some people have language functions localized in the left hemisphere, others in the right, and for some, the language area is more than ten times larger than that of others, highlighting its highly individualized character.

Nearly eight years have passed since the article was published in 2015. Today, UBRAIN Galaxy can clearly map hundreds of functional regions in any individual’s brain through simple scanning, achieving precise quantification of the location, shape, and status of different functional areas.

By simply scanning, hundreds of brain functions in each individual can be decoded. UBrain Galaxy has published over 100 papers in this field, providing thorough analysis of the corresponding scientific questions. The next step is to consider the practical applications of these individualized functional analyses.

An analysis based on the pathogenesis of brain diseases reveals that the vast majority are functional disorders: autism spectrum disorder (ASD) largely stems from the underdevelopment of certain brain functions, Alzheimer’s disease involves the degeneration of memory function, while depression, aphasia, and hemiplegia represent pathological changes in specific brain functions. Taking ASD as an example, it has long been a severe global challenge, previously hindered by a lack of understanding of its underlying mechanisms and the absence of specific medical treatments. Through pBFS, UBrain Galaxy can identify pathological alterations in the brain functional networks of each individual with ASD at the functional level, elucidate the underlying mechanisms, and thereby enable effective treatment. The pattern of brain functional network pathology is highly personalized; for instance, some patients exhibit impairments in the language network, others in the social network, and still others in the executive control network, with pathological changes often occurring simultaneously across multiple networks.

Based on the cognition and understanding of brain diseases, UBrain Galaxy has invented a new therapy called POINT Therapy, translated into Chinese as “Advantage Therapy,” which consists of three steps: “Read, Interpret, and Write.”

Step 1, “Scanning,” involves a approximately 20-minute scan using the hospital’s existing 1.5T or 3T MRI scanners. Although existing hospital equipment is utilized, the signal acquisition method differs. Traditionally, hospitals use these devices to acquire structural signals that reveal organic changes; for instance, in patients with tumors, lesions can be directly visualized on imaging. However, for patients with functional brain disorders such as depression or autism spectrum disorder, conventional hospital imaging fails to identify underlying brain abnormalities. In contrast, UBrain Galaxy captures functional variations in the brain by acquiring different types of signals.

The second step, "Decoding," involves uploading the acquired signals to software for analysis and processing, generating brain functional maps, and quantifying the morphology, location, and status of each functional network. On this basis, abnormal functional circuits are identified, and targets and parameters are calculated to develop a highly personalized treatment plan.

The third step is “writing.” UBrain Galaxy employs a non-invasive approach to “write” signals into the human brain for the intervention and treatment of brain disorders. The company has developed a specialized medical device and has successfully obtained registration certificates from multiple drug regulatory authorities. By downloading the corresponding treatment protocol onto the device, functional restoration therapy can be administered. The entire treatment process is non-invasive and safe, requiring neither surgery nor medication, and is free of side effects. For most conditions, the treatment course lasts 2–3 weeks, with daily sessions of 1–2 hours sufficient to achieve functional restoration and meet the therapeutic objectives for brain disorders.

The efficacy of the therapy must be validated through clinical trials. UBRAIN Galaxy has collaborated with more than a dozen hospitals in China to conduct clinical trials demonstrating its effectiveness. The clinical trials primarily focused on brain disorders that currently lack effective treatments, such as major depressive disorder, refractory Parkinson’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, aphasia, and hemiplegia. Over the past three years, approximately 500 patients have been treated, with an overall response rate exceeding 80%, and breakthrough therapeutic effects have been observed for each condition. Since early 2022, the POINT therapy has been implemented in clinical practice at medical institutions in Beijing. Within one year, more than 100 cases have been treated, including autism spectrum disorder, depression, Parkinson’s disease, sleep disorders, aphasia, and hemiplegia, achieving an actual effectiveness rate of 80%.

Wei Kecheng stated, UBrain Galaxy’s mission and vision are to advance brain cognition, conquer brain diseases, and strive to become the world’s most socially valuable brain technology company.Going forward, UBrain Galaxy will accelerate the promotion of POINT therapy to help more patients achieve treatment for brain diseases.