Alexander Lin

For two decades, a Brigham scientist’s idea to create a virtual biopsy, a way to support diagnosis and monitoring of brain tumors without surgery, had remained just that—an idea. But that changed in 2015 when he approached the podium at a Brigham Innovation Hub (iHub) pitch session.

Alexander Lin, PhD, the director of the Center for Clinical Spectroscopy, had spent his career studying multinuclear magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy, a noninvasive way to measure the biochemistry of the brain. Despite MR spectroscopy helping scientists to study everything from brain tumors to traumatic brain injury, the technique had always been difficult to perform in the clinic. Someone with a physics background, like Lin, needed to operate the technology.

“I’d had this idea in the back of my mind for years,” Lin said. “I wanted to make spectroscopy easy.” That’s why Lin pitched BrainSpec, a software-based platform that leverages MR spectroscopy to support evaluation and diagnosis of brain tumors non-invasively.

The iHub pitch session brought Lin together with engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs who sketched mockups of his product and shared business development ideas in real-time. Then, at the end of the whirlwind session, Lin pitched his idea to a panel of experts. iHub and the department of radiology granted Lin and his colleagues $20,000 to build the prototype that would become BrainSpec. After receiving additional funding from Tufts University and Harvard Business School competitions, Lin co-founded the company BrainSpec. Today, he is Scientific Lead for the startup and an active adviser.

The iHub pitch session is also where Lin met Alex Zimmerman, who would become the co-founder and CEO of BrainSpec. She was immediately excited about the project and saw its potential. “She said, ‘Let’s build something here,’” Lin recalled.

With commercialization and licensing help from the Mass General Brigham Innovation team, Lin was able to bring the project from idea to reality.

Breakthrough for BrainSpec

Alexander Lin (far left) presents his project on integrating MR Spectroscopy into clinical management for brain tumors to a panel of judges at the pitch session in 2015.

BrainSpec received Breakthrough device designation from the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 for estimating isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) status in glioma patients, for whom biopsies are inadvisable. Now, BrainSpec’s AI-based software, BrainSpec Core, has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for broader indications and is ready to enter the clinical setting.

The software allows clinicians to process and analyze MR spectroscopy data taken with standard MRI scanners, making the technology more accessible to clinicians. But unlike a standard MRI scan, which only shows the brain’s structure, MR spectroscopy detects the chemical composition of tissues, allowing for a more precise evaluation of brain tumors. BrainSpec also cuts the processing time of brain imaging data from three days to 3 minutes.

The technology can also support the diagnosis of 12 common brain-related illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and more. Lin hopes that it will be used for patients with difficult-to-access tumors, where conventional biopsies aren’t an option, and will help doctors monitor brain tumors over time.

Meaningful Mentorship

Lin first encountered MR spectroscopy in the lab of Brian Ross, PhD, as an undergraduate at Caltech. It wasn’t his first time working in a lab, but it became his most meaningful. He’d grown up captivated by the human brain but had never been able to study it directly. In his research, he used MR spectroscopy to diagnose tumors. Lin witnessed the direct impacts science could have on a patient’s life.

“My undergraduate lab experience opened my eyes to a completely different way of doing science,” he said. “One that was more clinical and patient oriented.”

Lin later completed his master’s in engineering and a PhD in biophysics and biochemistry, both at Caltech. All the while, he studied spectroscopy. “I’ve always been in the field of spectroscopy, just trying to learn much as I possibly can about it,” he said.

Lin came to the Brigham’s Center for Clinical Spectroscopy in 2009. Now he leads his own lab, where he’s studied several clinical applications for MR spectroscopy outside of cancer, including its potential to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury in football players. Lin has also become a distinguished mentor, particularly for students from underrepresented groups.

Bringing Spectroscopy to the Clinic

As a career scientist, Lin hadn’t been trained to build a company. So, at the prospect of launching BrainSpec, he was both exhilarated and terrified, he said. He says iHub’s support in building a prototype was crucial to the project’s success as was help and support from Mass General Brigham Innovation. He credits his team for guiding him through starting a business, from getting funding to gaining regulatory clearance.

Lin says Zimmerman’s guidance was invaluable, adding that her engineering background and previous regulatory experience helped him navigate the FDA’s stringent regulatory requirements.

Together, Lin and his team, including a postdoc in his lab at the Brigham and employees hired by BrainSpec, designed a product with both clinicians and patients in mind. Designers from MassArts also contributed key components to the design effort.

“If chemical changes in the tumor occur, BrainSpec could allow us to act much earlier,” Lin said.

“We can measure brain chemistry, see what kind of changes are occurring, and then help the clinicians determine what would be the best way to help treat these patients and improve their quality of life.”

Lin said that BrainSpec’s journey speaks to the power of collaboration and innovation in translational medicine. It also speaks to the importance of scientific communication in taking a product to market.

“The public needs to understand what we’re doing as scientists and why it’s so important that we spend all this time learning what seem to be esoteric things. They can actually have a major impact on someone’s life,” he said.

BrainSpec will soon enter the clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Mass General Hospital, and other hospitals nationwide. “It’s incredibly exciting,” Lin said. “To me, it’s a dream come true.”

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