Connectome Health is Creating Routine Brain Scans for the Masses

In the near future, we might go for a routine brain scan, much like a trip to the dentist. The idea is gaining traction in neuroscience: consumer wearables that reveal our cognitive health and provide data once inaccessible. Many startups are pushing the limits of comfort and design, developing headbands, headphones, and other at-home devices. Yet these tools fall short of clinical precision. Connectome Health aims to bridge that gap, offering a consumer solution for regular, clinic-grade brain scans.

Connectome Health was founded in Zurich by Lucas Scherdel (CEO), Ivan Reif (CTO), and Rufus Mitchell-Heggs (CSO). Having seen loved ones struggle with the long-lasting effects of neurological illness, the team vows to shift society toward a prevention model. Just as you visit your GP for a routine check-up, Connectome believes in periodic cognitive check-ups. To achieve this, the team is taking clinical-grade neuroimaging tools out of the lab and bringing them directly to the consumer.

Generating a Cognitive Baseline

Rufus Mitchell-Heggs co-founded Connectome Health one year ago, after completing a PhD between the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College. With research focused on the neurobiological basis of core processes such as memory, Rufus was immediately drawn to the idea behind Connectome Health. The trained neuroscientist joined as Chief Science Officer to continue his research in a translatable context, building a company that takes brain biomarkers from academia and makes them accessible to consumers and clinicians.

The main idea behind Connectome Health is simple: a 20-minute brain scan of the top surface of the cortex. The data is used to build a cognitive profile of the individual, focusing on key aspects of brain performance, such as attention, cognitive load, and memory. With these metrics, consumers gain a baseline of their mental performance and actionable insights on how to improve it over time.

Rufus Mitchell-Heggs (Co-founder and CSO)

With results neatly tracked in an accompanying app, Connectome users can see how their metrics evolve after each scan. And this concept, giving people a baseline of their cognitive state, is central to Rufus’ vision. “Most people never scan their brains; they have no indication of what’s going on at any point in time,” he says. “We are providing them with something to refer back to if they ever experience an issue such as a neurological disease, disorder, or trauma. A clinician can use it, too.”

There are many imaging modalities available for such scans, but Connectome has opted for time-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Instead of offering an fNIRS device affordable and small enough for home use, Connectome is using research-grade fNIRS helmets. These helmets offer clinical-grade measurements that are unattainable in a consumer wearable. Using a non-invasive, low-level beam of light, they reflect blood flow in the top layer of the cortex with high precision.

Just like in a functional MRI scan, these scans provide a basis for analysing both the structure and function of the brain. However, while fMRI is primarily reserved for clinical purposes and constrained to labs and hospitals, Connectome plans to host its fNIRS scans in existing longevity and neuro-performance clinics, initially focusing on pre-clinical consumers in the wellness space.

"Our mission is to transform how you understand and look after your brain, helping you optimize focus, memory, resilience, and longevity in a way that feels as effortless as tracking your steps," Lucas Scherdel, CEO and Co-Founder.

Routine Brainscans For The Masses

Connectome Health wants to offer consumers both periodic check-ups of their cognitive health and tailored protocols to improve their performance. Rufus explains, “If we spot something specific, let’s say poorer sleep, and we know it’s linked to a brain metric, then we can suggest: ‘Here are your brain biomarkers; here’s what you can do to make them better.’”

Connectome is not the first startup to analyse cognitive performance from a wellness perspective. A growing number of wearables can infer cognitive metrics and encourage users to improve. However, to remain affordable and user-friendly, these devices typically measure only a small portion of the brain. “We’re looking at the entire cortex,” Rufus says. “The brain works as a whole ensemble, with routing architecture bringing it together.” This focus on connectivity gives Connectome its name and its unique advantage.

Rufus has the rare privilege of having a Kernel helmet at home and shares his experiences. “I was scanning a lot during a period where I was working flat out, long weekends and long evenings,” he recalls. “I saw cognitive decline over that period. It was eye-opening. I needed to take a step back and find more balance so that I would not head towards burnout. We’re here for a marathon, not a sprint.”

How Connectome Health is Creating Actionable Insights

The key hurdle Connectome has to cross before going live is not just finding credible biomarkers, but actionable biomarkers. Rufus recognises that consumers are unlikely to pay for a non-clinical brain scan unless they are provided with concrete steps to improve their cognitive performance. Beyond identifying biomarkers in the wellness space, Rufus and Connectome want to push further along the clinical path.

“To get this company to a clinical stage is still a couple of years of work,” Rufus says. “We’re looking for partners in this space so we can do collaborative studies. The goal is to look into a brain area during a disease-specific cohort, mapping that cohort, and then subtyping it to find the best treatment recommendations.”

Connectome is currently recruiting for its first collaborative cohort study, the LUCID Study, which is being conducted in partnership with Imperial College London. The goal of LUCID is to investigate the correlation between brain imaging and lifestyle data, and ultimately refine predictive biomarkers of cognitive health. Participants will undergo scans using Connectome’s fNIRS technology and share complementary data (for example, wearable or behavioral metrics).

The fNIRS Helmet used by Connectome.

In the near future, Connectome plans to launch a flagship centre where consumers can undergo wellness scans and receive individualised protocol recommendations. The company also intends to partner with clinics to develop clinical use cases, using brain-based biomarkers to better stratify subgroups and refine diagnosis and treatment pathways.

Looking further ahead, Rufus envisions Connectome as part of a new layer of neuroinfrastructure, a platform that links everyday brain monitoring with clinical-grade insights. “In the long term, the goal is to develop a multimodal foundation model of the brain,” he says. “Something that supports clinical diagnosis and treatment, but also feeds back to the consumer, helping people understand and improve their cognition through data collected at scale.”

About the Founder

Rufus Mitchell-Heggs, PhD, is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Connectome Health. His doctoral research has centred on the neural underpinnings of memory and cognition, and he now channels that expertise into creating biomarkers that can transition from the lab to the clinic. Inspired by his personal experience, he is committed to shifting neuroscience toward a focus on prevention, rehabilitation, and everyday brain health. At Connectome, he leads the scientific strategy, biomarker development, and the translation of research into consumer and clinical applications.

About the Firm

Connectome Health is a neurotechnology startup bridging advanced brain imaging and consumer wellness. Using functional neuroimaging, it offers 20-minute cortical scans and cognitive profiling in partner clinics. The company also conducts cohort studies, such as its LUCID collaboration with Imperial College, to validate biomarkers and advance toward clinical utility. Its roadmap includes flagship scan centres and partnerships with neuroclinics, anchored by a long-term vision: a multimodal foundation model of the brain that supports both clinical diagnosis and consumer self-tracking.

Visit Connectome: https://www.connectome.health/

Enroll in the LUCID study: https://www.connectome.health/lucid-study