About us
Who we are
Innodem Neurosciences was founded by Dr. Etienne de Villers-Sidani in 2016. As a staff neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Hospital, he noticed that patients rendered speechless by various neurological conditions could not access effective communication tools. Communication with these patients is often only possible using gaze-tracking devices as eye movements are often spared in paralyzed individuals. The vast majority of gaze-tracking devices, however, require the use of expensive proprietary hardware and tend to be complicated to set up by family members or medical staff. This has resulted in very low use rates, poor quality of life, and poor quality of care for the vast majority of these patients. He imagined that a more intuitive mobile application could be developed since most patients and healthcare professionals today had access to smartphones and tablets with embedded cameras. Dr. de Villers-Sidani first hired software engineer Alexandre Drouin to build a software-based gaze-tracking prototype that would work on any mobile platform. He then paired with experienced entrepreneurs Marc Reeves and Yves Desgagné to help bring this technology to market. Pigio™ for iPad was launched in the summer of 2019 after receiving close to $1M in angel funding. Thanks to a fully integrated cloud-based deep-learning pipeline, the millions of data points derived from Pigio™ users led to a patented gaze-tracking technology using visible light cameras with a diagnostic grade precision similar or better than infrared solutions.
What we do
Today, Innodem works with the pharmaceutical industry, leading medical professionals, and artificial intelligence experts to develop and promote Eye Movement Biomarkers (EMBs) & Gaze Mapping Biomarkers (GMBs) as important clinical assessment tools in the field of neurology. It is building a series of disease-specific tests embodied in an intuitive App that captures EMB & GMB data. The vision is that over time, while leveraging the latest advances in machine and deep learning, this EMB/GMB platform will assist users to accurately diagnose and monitor neurological disorders affecting eye-movements or cognition such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheirmer’s, Parkinson’s or related disorders, Frontotemporal dementia, Cancer-related cognitive impairment (Chemo Brain) and many others.
Our Team

Etienne de Villers-Sidani
MD, FRCP(C), Main Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. de Villers-Sidani is a cognitive neurologist who completed his post-doctoral studies at the UCSF Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neurosciences. He is currently an Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University and is an attending neurologist and Director of the Neuroplasticity and Sensory Biomarking Laboratory of the Montreal Neuro.

Yves Desgagné
Co-Founder, Soft. Eng. & Chief Technology Officer
Yves Desgagné is the former Director of R&D at Verint Systems and a founding member of Innodem Neurosciences and leads all product development.

Marc Reeves
Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer
Marc Reeves is a serial technology entrepreneur and former IBM executive. He leads all corporate & business strategies including financing activities.

Patrice Voss
PhD, Vice President of Neurosciences Research
Patrice Voss is a Research Associate at the Montreal Neuro. He leads all neurosciences research at Innodem Neurosciences.

Susan McIntosh
MBA, Vice President of Finance
Susan McIntosh cumulates decades of experience as a former banker in the technology sector at National Bank, BDC and Bank of Montreal. She is responsible for Finance and oversees our external Legal counsels.

Alexandre Drouin-Picaro
M.Sc., Soft. Eng., Founding Member, Vice President, AI Research & Development
Alexandre Drouin-Picaro holds a Master of Engineering in Brain-Computer Interfaces and is responsible for all AI research and Deep Learning platform development at Innodem Neurosciences.

Francis Arseneau
B.Sc., MM, Vice President of Operations
Francis Arseneau joined Innodem shortly after its inception and holds a Master of Management in Finance and is a neuroscientist. He oversees our daily operations including our clinical trials pipeline.

Jean-Pierre Thivierge, P. Eng.
Vice-President of the Project Management Office (P.M.O.)
Jean-Pierre Thivierge holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and has more than 25 years of experience in managing complex technological projects at large companies such as Alstom, Verint and Nuance Communications. At Innodem Neurosciences, he governs and oversees the entire lifecycle of the portfolio of programs and projects.
Our Advisors
Medical and Scientific Advisors
Dr. Jack Antel
MD, FRCP(C) –Multiple Sclerosis
Dr. Paul Giacomini
MD, FRCP(C) – Multiple Sclerosis
Dr. Edward A. Fon
MD, FRCP(C) – Parkinson’s
Dr. Angela Genge
MD, FRCPC(C) - ALS
Daniel Guitton, Ph.D.
Ph.D. – Oculomotor Control Expert
Dr. Valérie Panet-Raymond
M.D., CM, FRCPC(C) - Oncology
Dr. Simon Ducharme
M.D., CM, FRCPC(C) - Alzheimer
Artificial Intelligence Advisor
Danilo Bzdok, Ph.D.
Ph.D. – Canada CIFAR AI Chair at McGill University & Mila Quebec AI Institute