a2 Pilot Awards

RSVP for the 5th a2PilotAwards.ai which is accepting applications from Dec 2, 2024 to Jan 15, 2025 (5 p.m. ET)... https://lnkd.in/gnZyJRaG

Congratulations to Butlr, a Year 1 awardee from MassAITC, on the successful completion of their investment round with RICOH Company Limited, Wistron, and Taiwan Global Angels! As a company redefining how we understand and design physical spaces—while protecting individual privacy—Butlr is transforming industries from senior care to workplace, retail, and higher education. We’re proud to see an National Institute on Aging (NIA)-backed a2 Pilot Awards Awardee making bold moves to scale globally and shape the future of the $38 trillion commercial real estate market. This milestone underscores the potential of AI-driven, human-centered innovation in the built environment. #a2Collective #MassAITC #AgingTech #BuiltEnvironment #AI #SeniorCare #RealEstateInnovation

Last week, AgeTech Capital co-founder Alan MacIntosh joined an exceptional gathering at the a2 National Symposium at the Harvard Club of Boston. This event underscored how rapidly the intersection of #AI, #aging, #Alzheimer’s, and related #dementias is evolving. Hosted by the a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai —a $40M #NIH-backed initiative led by Johns Hopkins University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Pennsylvania, with active participation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University—the symposium brought together a powerhouse mix of researchers, technologists, investors, and founders working to accelerate progress in #longevity and brain health. Highlights included: 🔹 Marty Sliwinski (Penn State) on the temporal dynamics of cognition 🔹 Michael Kahana (UPenn)on the neurotech breakthroughs behind Nia Therapeutics 🔹 Hon Pak (Samsung Health) on creating an integrated, global aging platform 🔹 Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab) on conversational AI for emotional well-being 🔹 Alex Zhavoronkov (Insilico Medicine) on dual-purpose therapeutics powered by AI The event also featured: - Reverse pitches from 11 leading funders—including Alan MacIntosh (slide 8 in the carousel), Winn Hong (Kulia Labs), Kate Brigham (AgeTech Investor Network), and James Hueston (Primetime Partners) - Poster sessions highlighting translational research across the Johns Hopkins Artificial Intelligence Collaboratory for Aging Research - High-value speed mentoring, offering awardees actionable investor feedback With 98 NIH-funded awardees already in motion and a fourth cohort on the way, this field is rapidly taking shape. Convening this diverse group of stakeholders is vital—not only for sharing learnings and best practices but also for demonstrating the traction needed to attract capital to deliver life-changing impact at scale. Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PhD Deepak Ganesan, Lyne Landry, ICD.D, Christele Berthelot-Logsdon, Bruce B. Simpson, Tina Nguyen #AgeTech #AI #LongevityInnovation #Alzheimers #HealthyAging #NIH #BrainHealth #Dementia #VentureCapital #SocialImpact #AITC #a2Collective #InnovationInAging

💥 Speed Mentoring for a2 Pilot Awards Entrepreneurs + Agetech VCs at the Harvard Club of Boston 💥 Flashback to one of the most dynamic moments of the 3rd a2 National Symposium—our #SpeedMentoring program, where the room was buzzing with high-energy, high-impact conversations! We matched 10 active funders with 20 awardee mentees in fast-paced, focused mentoring rounds. Each mentor met with 10 different awardees, and each mentee had the opportunity to meet with 5 different funders—no small feat in just 45 minutes! A huge THANK YOU to our incredible mentors who made this possible: Kate Brigham (TBD Angels) Elizabeth Cho-Fertikh & John Brzezenski (MEDA Ventures) Jeff Chu (Features Capital) Jim Doscher (Beacon Angels) Winn Hong (Nokia Ventures) James Hueston (Primetime Partners) Alan MacIntosh (AgeTech Capital & AgeTech Investor Network) Denise Saltojanes (NuFund Venture Group) Ted Werth (Launchpad Venture Group) Check out the quick clip below and catch a glimpse of this exciting exchange of insights, ideas, and investment energy. #SpeedMentoring #a2Symposium #AgeTech #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Startups #PilotAwardees #MentorshipMatters #InnovationInAging PS - Some of our mentees.. John Ralston G. Antonio Sosa-Pascual Trent Guess Dew-Anne Langcaon Jen Flexman, PhD, MBA Rick Watkins Laureano Moro Velázquez Hamed Tabkhi Felipe Jain Katherine Kim Catherine Sarkisian Tatsuo Kumamoto Erik Page Warren Pettine

Continuing our recap of the 3rd #a2NationalSymposium, we wanted to highlight some of our #AgeTech device demonstrations. This was a new activity this year to enable attendees to try firsthand the #AI enhanced technologies that a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai pilot awardees are developing. - Tatsuo Kumamoto of Billion Labs demonstrating their new Smartphone-Based Dynamometer to Alan MacIntosh for remote frailty screening - Erik Page of Blue Iris Labs talking to Pamela Cacchione, PhD, CRNP, BC, FGSA, FAAN of The Penn AI and Tech Collaboratory for Healthy Aging about their Speck wearable for monitoring real-time light exposure to understand it's impact on sleep in aging and Alzheimer's Disease - Warren Pettine of MTN talking to Holly Jimison of MassAITC about their suite of AI products that aid in patient triage, telemetry monitoring, and clinical decision-making. - Trent Guess of University of Missouri-Columbia showing off MPASS, a portable system that uses artificial intelligence to spot cognitive impairment. - Daniel Press, Meaghan McKenna, Chum Lim from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center show off their mobile app for longitudinal testing to improve cognitive impairment diagnosis - Laureano Moro Velázquez of Johns Hopkins Hospital walks Albert Lee of Rose Li and Associates, Inc. through his ADPIE system for digital biomarker phenotyping - Rick Watkins of Livindi shows off their remote patient monitoring at at home safety technology including their pilot work on passive voice recognition for distress - The team Rendever demonstrates their RendeverFit system to a member of Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center team. - Amar Basu of TRACE Biometrics shows an attendee the latest version of their earable for monitoring vital signs of the head to better prevent falls from orthostatic hypotension - The MindMics patented earbud infrasonic technology for using the ear to listen to the heart to monitor blood pressure, heart rate variability, stress, and overall heart health. - The Probius MiniQES Bioanalytical Platform for measuring direct human samples (blood, serum) for discovering novel biomarkers of aging and Alzheimer's Disease Thank you all the pilot awardees from MassAITC Johns Hopkins Artificial Intelligence Collaboratory for Aging Research & The Penn AI and Tech Collaboratory for Healthy Aging running these demonstrations and to the attendees who mustered up the courage to try them out! #AgeTech #DeviceDemos #MachineLearning #Gerontechnology #Wearables #AlzheimersResearch

Grateful to spend time last week with some brilliant folks at the a2 poster session. Always good to see familiar faces like Michael Hughes and James Hueston, and finally meet Benjamin Richman! As expected, lots of great work on fall detection, prediction models, and digital biomarkers. What really caught my attention were the unexpected ones: oral health innovations, anti-phishing, and thoughtful frameworks for digital ethics. Exciting to see the field pushing beyond clinical risk detection into daily life, dignity, and safety - practical, human-centered ideas for aging in place. Thanks to the a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai (and the NIA) for cultivating not just pilots, but a real ecosystem of innovators in aging and AI.

Kudos to the a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai for a terrific conference last week. If you’re looking to find the bleeding edge in #AgeTech this is a great place to look. Lots of stimulating presentations and conversations. The next one will be held in Washington DC next year and I’m looking very forward to attending. Peter Elbaor Benjamin Richman Bailey Paxton James Hueston

This past Thursday April 3, 2025 and Friday April 4, 2025 I was honored to present my first poster session ever at the a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai Annual Symposium at the Harvard Club of Boston. Thankful to the MassAITC and to the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for funding our current research to train AI to Support the Relationship Between Alzheimer’s Disease Patients and their Caregivers. I am also thankful to Michael Busa at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his team at the @CH2P for supporting our pilot. Many thanks as well to María Soledad (Marisol) Pieras, Ipsit Vahia, MD David R. Paquette, PhD Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PhD @Deepak Ganesan and Benjamin Marlin who have continued to support our pilot in critical ways. The Symposium was incredible. Kudos to the organizers, Rose Li, Stephen Liu and the rest of her team at Rose Li and Associates, Inc.

The a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai annual meeting is a highlight on my spring calendar. At last week's meeting in Boston, organized by MassAITC, our team and collaborators showcased cutting edge work on AI-based neurocognitive testing, developing frameworks for using AI-based LLMs for caregiver support and creating data streams to guide prescribing and clinical.decosion making in rural and low resources communities. Enough stimulating ideas and conversations in a day to fuel another year's worth of work...when we expect to present data from these projects. Rachel Sava, PhD Shifali Singh, PhD G. Antonio Sosa-Pascual David R. Paquette, PhD Deepak Ganesan Benjamin C. Silverman, MD #AI #dementiacare #alzheimersdisease #agingcare #digitalhealth #geropsych

Thanks to the a2 Collective | a2PilotAwards.ai and hosts at MassAITC for bringing together a community of innovators in Boston to talk about #AI, #aging and #dementia! It was a jam packed two days full of old and new connections and insights into technology, brain health and aging. Sharing a few things I learned: ➡️ Cognition varies on both a short term (days, weeks) and long term (aging, disease) basis. In the short term, variation due to factors like social activity, physical activity, stress can lead to cognitive variation that can be the equivalent of 2-5 years of age related decline. Data collection on a short time scale is rarely used and an opportunity to provide a much more nuanced picture of cognition and, importantly, cognitive function. ➡️ In particular, on a short term basis, social interactions can boost #cognition for two days, most pronounced in people who are more socially isolated. ➡️ Removal of demographic data encoded in medical AI models actually leads to better performance and fairness, particularly in subgroups, by removing demographically biased prediction shortcuts. ➡️ New technology (such as an exoskeleton) can help address the challenge of ensuring patients receive enough “dosage” of #rehabilitation at home, given the challenges associated with mobility and in person visits. Bringing #accessible rehab into the home, addressing the social and behavioral effects on #cognition and driving patient outcomes through fair #AI is at the core of what we are building at Moneta Health. Until next year! Michael Busa Corinna Serviente Jessie Ng David R. Paquette, PhD