Compumedics’ dual-helmet brain tech hits a nerve in China’s neuroscience boom

• China Brain Project rolls out neuro-AI push
• Compumedics dual-helmet MEG lights up Tianjin labs
• ASX health stocks surge deeper into China

A few years back, China kicked off what might be the most ambitious science mission you’ve never heard of: the China Brain Project.

This is a full-scale national effort to figure out how the brain works, fix what goes wrong when it doesn’t, and use all that insight to build the next generation of artificial intelligence.

Launched in September 2021, the project strings together 59 headline studies, backed by about RMB 3.2 billion ($680 million) under a framework cheerfully called “one body, two wings.”

The “body” focuses on fundamental neuroscience, how we learn, think, feel and remember.

One “wing” tackles brain disorders like epilepsy, autism and dementia, aiming to improve diagnosis and treatment.

The other “wing” is all about brain-inspired tech: building machines that mimic how humans learn and adapt, rather than just crunching data the old-fashioned way.

But to get from elegant theory to real-world breakthroughs, scientists need to see the brain in action.

Not just its structure, but its split-second activity as thoughts, memories and decisions light up the neurons. That’s where brain imaging comes in.

MRI gives you high-res still shots of the brain’s anatomy – useful, but static.

MEG, or magnetoencephalography, is the opposite: it captures the brain in motion, recording real-time electrical activity down to the millisecond.

MEG listens to the brain’s own magnetic murmurs, but legacy systems come with two big drawbacks.

One-size-fits-adults helmets leave a child’s head rattling around like a pea in a tin, so the sensors sit too far from the brain and the signal fizzles.

Even worse, most MEG systems burn through liquid helium to keep the sensors cold.

And when that coolant runs low, the whole scanner has to shut down until a refill arrives, usually in the form of a specialised delivery, which isn’t always quick or easy.

China’s new brain labs wanted something nimbler.

Enter an Australian outsider.

Compumedics lands world-first dual-helmet MEG

Compumedics (ASX:CMP), a med-tech company based in Melbourne, spent nearly ten years developing a new kind of MEG system with its research partners at Korea’s KRISS institute.

The result is the Orion LifeSpan, a scanner that holds two helmets, one for adults and one for children, inside a single cooling chamber (called a dewar).

It uses advanced, patented sensors known as DROS-SQUIDs to pick up the brain’s magnetic signals with high precision.

Unlike older systems that need constant helium refills, Orion recycles almost all its coolant, so it can keep running around the clock without shutting down.

It also has a “hyperscanning” mode, which can record the brain activity of two people at the same time. That’s useful, for example, if you’re studying how a child’s brain interacts with their parent’s during a shared task.

Tianjin Normal University (TJNU) secured the first Orion in late 2024. After months of tests, the university gave formal acceptance and called it the most advanced MEG lab on the planet.

”The Orion LifeSpan MEG recently installed by Compumedics at TJNU has been a revolution in our ability to study mental processes of both children and adults, or even the two simultaneously,” said Vice-President Professor Xuejun Bai.

“The system has already proven itself to be extremely sensitive, accurate and reliable.”

TJNU researchers sat a four-year-old under the Orion LifeSpan MEG and fed 200 quick tones into one ear, while the scanner captured her brain’s magnetic response.

With the paediatric helmet snug to her scalp, the auditory peaks popped up about 90 milliseconds after each beep – clear, high-amplitude waveforms that lit the display like a studio-grade equaliser.

Then the team simply rotated Orion’s dual-helmet dewar to bring the adult dome into place, and ran the exact same test.

This time the signals barely rose above the noise floor; the larger helmet kept the sensors centimetres farther from her brain, and most of the field strength bled away before it reached the coils.

That side by side comparison, all on a single machine, delivered what Compumedics later called “the first time a single MEG system had given high-quality scans for both children and adults.”

Compumedics has proven that shortening the brain-to-sensor gap and boosting the signal-to-noise ratio can unlock the precision that paediatric neurology has long been waiting for.

China’s brain labs line up

The TJNU showcase set off a modest domino run.

Tsinghua University signed on, a second Tianjin facility followed, and Hangzhou Normal University ordered its own Orion LifeSpan package.

The four contracts total roughly $20 million, with Hangzhou’s unit slated for delivery in early 2026.

Compumedics isn’t claiming to own the market; it’s simply first out of the blocks.

MEG scanners are still rare in China compared with the country’s vast MRI fleet, and Orion’s dual-helmet design halves both the hardware bill and the room it needs, exactly the kind of maths provincial governments like as they race to build new neuroscience centres.

None of it turns Compumedics into a household name overnight, but it does explain why four Chinese universities have already signed purchase orders.

And as the China Brain Project accelerates, the real-time windows provided by MEG are likely to move from niche to mainstream.

China becomes launchpad for ASX health plays

With its sheer scale, ageing population and a government rolling out the red carpet for cutting-edge medical tech, China has become a proving ground that’s increasingly hard for ASX health outfits to ignore.

Compumedics isn’t the only Aussie med-tech with serious skin in the China game.

Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX), for instance, is running several China-based Phase III registration studies.

The ZIRCON-CP trial of its kidney-cancer imaging agent TLX250-CDx is being conducted at Beijing Cancer Hospital and other leading oncology centres, in conjunction with strategic partner Grand Pharmaceutical Group.

The first Chinese patient was dosed late-2024, and the study remains active in 2025.

Cochlear (ASX:COH) continues its three-decade clinical presence in China.

In June, the company launched its Nucleus Nexa smart implant within the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, a government-sanctioned hospital hub that fast-tracks novel devices and collects clinical evidence for mainland approval.

EZZ Life Science (ASX:EZZ), meanwhile, has quietly pulled off one of the sharpest China plays on the ASX, turning a niche Aussie wellness brand into a breakout star.

In FY24, revenue surged 79% to $66.4 million, with a clean $10.4 million in EBITDA and zero debt on the books.

And 80% of that cash came straight out of Greater China, thanks to a killer e-commerce strategy across Douyin, Tmall, Kuaishou and O’Mall, where its anti-ageing pills and children growth chews have become chart-toppers.

Parents in China can’t get enough of EZZ’s kids’ range, and the company just dropped a fresh $21 million deal to push into Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Compumedics and EZZ Life Science are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decision.