Date: Saturday, September 30th
Time: 10:30am – 12:30pm

Headquartered in San Francisco, Rune Labs (www.runelabs.io) is a software and data analytics company for precision neurology, supporting care delivery and therapy development.

StrivePD is the company’s disease management care tool that enables people with Parkinson’s to track their symptoms and medication in advance of clinical visits, and allows users to share their daily Parkinson’s experience / personalized insights with their neurologist or movement disorder specialist. StrivePD combines and summarizes different data sources for PwPDS and their care team including: brain signals from a DBS implant, Apple Watch data (tremor, dyskinesia and HealthKit data), self reported data, and clinical data.

This Speaker Forum session will include a live demonstration of the StrivePD application, highlighting its features and functionality.

Please note that StrivePD is suitable for individuals at any stage of their Parkinson’s journey, regardless of their treatment therapy. The application is available for free download on the Apple iOS app store.

Submit questions in advance: t.morrish@pdactive.org

Panelists:

  • Brian Pepin, CEO and Founder of Rune Labs
  • Benjamin Stecher; PwP + DBS; avid PD researcher, advocate, diplomat; https://tmrwedition.com/; author, Brain Fables, Chair of Rune Labs Patient Advisory Board

Bios:

Brian Pepin

Brian Pepin is CEO and founder of Rune Labs. Before starting Rune Labs in 2018, Brian spent nearly five years at the Alphabet/Verily Life Sciences, leading teams that built data-driven healthcare products and partnerships. While at Verily, he helped launch Galvani Bioelectronics, a $1 billion joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline to develop new therapies for immune disease based on stimulation of peripheral nerves, running the Verily team of engineers at the JV for two years.

Brian has been at the intersection of engineering and neuroscience for more than a decade, starting with his graduate work at Berkeley on novel brain-machine interfaces. He was driven to found Rune Labs after recognizing the opportunity to build the quality brain data foundation needed to support the engineering of new therapies and medical devices for degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders, a long-standing frustration in the field.

Ben Stecher

Benjamin Stecher was born in Nairobi, Kenya but grew up just outside Toronto, Canada. He studied history and philosophy at the University of Guelph, but as soon as he graduated he took off and spent most of the next decade living and working in East Asia as an education consultant.

All that changed when, at 29 years old, Benjamin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The promising future he had been building towards suddenly faded and was replaced by a gloomy fog of uncertainty and despair. As his disease progressed, he realized that he needed to come back home to learn how to better manage his disease.

But, as he started visiting labs and attending conferences, he soon found himself enthralled by the rampant pace at which biomedical science has progressed in the 21st century. He spent the next couple of years traveling the world visiting research centers and pharmaceutical companies to learn from the top minds in the field all that he could about this disease and what therapies were on the horizon.

He now speaks regularly at academic centers and biotech companies on issues related to neurodegenerative diseases, research advocacy and healthcare. He is also the founder of Tomorrow Edition, and a patient advisor to several organizations including the Toronto Western Hospital Movement Disorder Clinic and Rune Labs, a San Francisco based brain-tech company, where he chairs their patient advisory board. He has also written a book along with Prof. Alberto Espay and published by Cambridge University Press titled Brain Fables. As well as the forthcoming Reprogramming the Brain with Alfonso Fasano, published by Springer Publishing.


If you have questions in advance, you may submit those to t.morrish@pdactive.org.

Registration


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