Brown Invents
In 2020, the team of Barry Lester, a professor of psychiatry, human behavior, and pediatrics, and Stephen Sheinkopf, executive director of the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Missouri and an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry, human behavior, and pediatrics, received a BBII award to develop diagnostic tools based on acoustic signatures from infants’ cries that are not discernible to the human ear. Recently, a new start-up, PedialyDx, was formed to further develop and commercialize this technology. The first product will be a handheld device that uses a cloud-based algorithm to determine whether the cries of an infant with prenatal opioid exposure meet the criteria for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. The company is also exploring use of the device in autism research.