Zoe Kourtzi
Prodromic delivers ‘brain forecasts’ to accelerate new treatments in neurodegenerative disorders, powered by AI.
Project
Prodromic
URL
Year founded
2024
Business stage
Pre-seed
High-growth sectors
Digital and Technologies
Sector
Health
Location
East of England
Funding
Funded Award Winner
The problem and opportunity
Dementia affects 1 million people in the UK, costing £42 billion per year – a societal problem. By 2050, there will be a new case every second. Dementia drug development has one of the highest failure rates in medicine: 95%, despite $43 billion R&D investment over 30 years. Patients who look similar in clinic often have very different disease patterns and progress at different speeds, masking therapeutic effects in trial.
The solution and innovation
Sia, our AI-powered platform is designed to transform how dementia treatments are developed and brought to patients. It combines existing clinical and biomarker data -like blood tests, brain scans, and cognitive tests – to generate personalised ‘brain forecasts’. These predict how fast dementia is likely to progress. By identifying meaningful patient subgroups early, Sia helps researchers design smarter, cheaper, targeted trials, accelerating drug discovery.
Market and ambition
Our ambition is to become the leading global platform for prognostic stratification in dementia drug development. Over the next two years, we aim to convert Sia from a validated prototype into a scalable solution for drug discovery.
Founder perspective
Zoe Kourtzi, co-founder of Prodromic is a neuroscientist and Professor at the University of Cambridge. She is passionate about developing and translating responsible AI-powered tools for precision brain care.
Women in Innovation Award
Recipient of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award 2025/26, receiving tailored business support, and access to specialist training and networks. View all winners and highly commended applicants from the Women in Innovation cohort 2025/2026.