NIH Awards $5.5 Million in Grant Funding to CranioSense

CranioSense Inc. has been awarded about $5.5 million in total non-dilutive funding through the NIH Blueprint MedTech Program and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program (JWMRP).

“In over a decade of working to develop Prolonged Casualty Care (PFC) training, doctrine, and equipment, one of the biggest gaps in monitoring critical casualties in austere military and civilian environments has been the inability to effectively track intracranial pressure,” said LTC (Ret.) Doug Powell, M.D., former PFC consultant to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) Surgeon’s Directorate. “Noninvasive ICP [intercranial pressure] monitoring has long been considered a ‘Holy Grail’ of PFC, and CranioSense’s work represents a meaningful step toward closing that gap.”

Together, these grants fund initiatives that will link CranioSense’s defense-driven work to its mission of improving brain pressure assessment in civilian care.

“These awards will support device development and pivotal validation, moving CranioSense decisively toward market launch,” CranioSense Co-Founder/CEO Ryan Myers, Ph.D., stated. “The Blueprint MedTech and JWMRP programs represent two sides of the same mission: enabling better neurologic care anywhere and everywhere it is needed.”

CranioSense’s technology uses near-infrared optical sensors and proprietary algorithms to deliver real-time, noninvasive elevated brain pressure diagnoses. Once approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the system will make intracranial pressure assessment as routine as blood pressure measurement, bringing much-needed diagnostic support to emergency departments, where rapid decisions most matter. In the future, the platform will measure additional biomarkers tied to acute and chronic brain health, unlocking artificial intelligence-driven prediction and decision support to guide clinical care.

Leveraging complementary investments made last spring by multiple angel investors—Illinois Venture Angels, She’s Independent, Heinz Ventures, and Hillside Ventures—the company will continue collaborating with clinical and engineering partners to achieve regulatory milestones and prepare for pilot deployment.

CranioSense Inc. is a Bedford, Mass.-based neurotechnology company developing noninvasive tools to monitor intracranial pressure. Founded in 2023, CranioSense’s mission is to make brain pressure monitoring as safe, simple, and universal as blood pressure measurement.