Rhovica Neuroimaging AG raised CHF 2.3 million (US$2.85 million) in a pre-seed financing round for Sonav, its bedside navigation system designed for extraventricular drainage. With its integrated sensors that provide real-time visualization to guide catheter insertion into brain ventricles, Sonav has the potential to transform emergency neurosurgery by improving safety and precision.

Researchers from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation continue to build intellectual property to protect their invention of a portable device for regulating the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a patient.

In what represents its first patenting, Rhovica Neuroimaging AG seeks protection for an external ventricular drainage catheter for the drainage of cerebrospinal fluid to reduce intracranial pressure. The catheter is integrated with sensors which enable safe, fast and cost-efficient catheter placement and monitoring of brain ventricles.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis reported data validating microtubule-binding region (MTBR) of tau containing the residue 243 (MTBR-tau243) as a new cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker specific for insoluble tau aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Karolinska Institutet and affiliated organizations have reported the discovery of a novel gene therapy delivered through a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) conduit as new treatment strategy for hearing loss.

Cerevasc Inc. has treated its first U.S. patient using an investigational device intended for patients suffering from hydrocephalus, one of the most common neurological conditions worldwide. Boston-based Cerevasc’s Eshunt system is being taken through its paces during a clinical study in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is aimed at replacing a half-century-old neurosurgical procedure associated with frequent failure, infection risk and high costs.

Mark it as a day to remember. The U.S. FDA has awarded de novo marketing authorization for the first in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), enabling diagnosis of the dreaded disease years earlier than current clinical tests. Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc.’s Lumipulse G β-Amyloid Ratio (1-42/1-40) measures specific proteins in cerebral spinal fluid to provide rapid assessment of the risk of amyloid plaques, an indicator of the disease that may develop decades before cognitive impairment occurs.

Glaciers are known to move slowly, but so is government, and the FDA needed seven years to make effective an order that cerebrospinal fluid shunts be deemed class II devices. The classification was applicable as of Aug. 22, 2014, in connection with a de novo petition filed by no less than industry colossus Medtronic plc, of Dublin, in a process that began in 2012, possibly earlier.

A multi-institutional team of researchers has discovered that acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells metabolically adapt to the cerebrospinal fluid-filled CNS microenvironment upon migration from the bone marrow with alterations in fatty acid synthetic pathways.

Cambridge, Mass., startup Enclear Therapies Inc. has secured $10 million in series A financing led by 20/20 Healthcare Partners. The company is developing a device to aid in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases by removing toxic proteins from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).