Duke BIG IDEAs Lab

What Duke BIG IDEAs Lab does

Duke BIG IDEAs Lab (Biomedical Informatics Group for Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence) is an academic research laboratory at Duke University founded in 2019 by Dr. Jessilyn Dunn. The lab develops digital biomarkers using wearable sensors, mobile health technologies, and AI/ML methods to detect, monitor, and predict disease states. Its research portfolio spans COVID-19 detection, glucose dysregulation, infection detection, opioid use disorder, and cardiometabolic disease. Operations are funded through extramural research grants from federal agencies (NIH, NSF, FDA) and philanthropic organizations, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The lab's core technology output consists of open-source software tools and platforms, including the Digital Biomarker Discovery Pipeline (DBDP), DiabetesWatch, InfectionWatch, FOMO, and JupyterHealth. It has assembled datasets from over 350,000 participants across 10+ countries to train and validate models, with public releases of large-scale wearable and glucose datasets. Research outputs include high-impact publications in journals such as Nature Digital Medicine and npj Digital Medicine, and custom ML pipelines for tasks including glucose prediction from continuous glucose monitor data and infection/anomaly detection from physiological signals.

As an academic unit within Duke University, the lab does not generate commercial revenue. Its operating model is grant-funded research with open-source publication of tools and datasets. The lab has approximately 9 personnel, and its principal investigator has received multiple high-profile awards, including an NSF CAREER Award, an IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, and a 2026 Bass Chair appointment.

Name

Duke BIG IDEAs Lab

Legal name

Duke BIG IDEAs Lab (Duke University Department of Biomedical Engineering)

Website

https://dunn.pratt.duke.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Duke BIG IDEAs Lab is an academic research lab at Duke University that develops open-source digital biomarker tools using wearable sensors and AI/ML, serving the digital health research community through grant-funded work and open datasets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Health Research Software

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Lab Analytics, Utilization Management & Operational Intelligence (HLACAMAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Clinical Research & Trial Central Laboratories (HLAFAMAL)

Keywords

• Digital biomarker discovery
• Wearable sensor analytics
• Digital health research
• Biomedical engineering
• Machine learning health

Headquarters

HQ city

Durham

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Grants and Funding: Primarily funded through NIH, NSF, FDA grants and research awards for developing digital biomarkers of health conditions including diabetes, infection detection, and opioid use disorder

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Duke BIG IDEAs Lab is an academic research laboratory that develops and validates open-source tools, frameworks, and datasets for digital biomarker discovery from wearable sensor data. It produces analytical software such as the Digital Biomarker Discovery Pipeline (DBDP), research products like DiabetesWatch and InfectionWatch, the FOMO missing-data toolkit, and the JupyterHealth platform for patient-generated health data.

Product overview

Duke BIG IDEAs Lab is a digital health research lab (not a commercial product company) that develops open-source tools, frameworks, and datasets for digital biomarker discovery and wearable technology research. Their portfolio includes the Digital Biomarker Discovery Pipeline (DBDP) - an open-source analytical framework for processing wearable sensor data; DiabetesWatch - research on glycemic health biomarkers from wearables; InfectionWatch - device-agnostic infection detection framework; FOMO - missing data analysis toolkit; and JupyterHealth - an open-source platform for PGHD data ingestion and analysis. They also publish research datasets on PhysioNet and release ML pipelines for glucose prediction. All products are research-focused tools for academic and industry researchers, not commercial software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Digital Biomarker Discovery Pipeline (DBDP): An open-source project that aims to improve the transparency and reproducibility of digital biomarker studies by providing open-source frameworks and analytical methods
• DiabetesWatch
• InfectionWatch
• FOMO (Functions for Optimizing Missing Observations)
• JupyterHealth

Products and services

• Digital Biomarker Discovery Pipeline (DBDP) Open-source framework and analytical methods for digital biomarker discovery from wearable sensor data, intended for academic and industry researchers, aiming to improve transparency and reproducibility of digital biomarker studies.
• DiabetesWatch

Quantifiable outcome

• Publications in leading journals including Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Digital Medicine, Nature Health, The Lancet Digital Health
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Google Consumer Health Advisory PanelflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 July 2025Dr. Jessilyn Dunn serves on the Google Consumer Health Advisory Panel, providing expertise on wearable technology and digital health research applications.
• Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2025Duke BIG IDEAs Lab is partnering with DiMe alongside scientific and industry leaders to conduct research and build a relapse prevention tool for opioid use disorder. The collaboration defines and collects physiological signals and behavior traits measurable by wearable technologies to predict relapse.
• Fitbit (now part of Google)coreTechnology or Integration · 30 April 2025Fitbit (Google) is part of the DiMe partnership for opioid use disorder research, providing wearable device data collection capabilities for the relapse prevention tool development.
• ŌURAcoreTechnology or Integration · 30 April 2025OURA ring manufacturer is collaborating in the DiMe partnership to provide physiological signal data for opioid use disorder relapse prediction.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel HillcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2025UNC is a key academic partner in the DiMe-led opioid use disorder relapse prevention research collaboration alongside Duke BIG IDEAs Lab.
• North Carolina Central UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2025NCCU is partnering in the DiMe collaboration to bring diverse perspectives and community engagement to the opioid use disorder research.
• Triangle CERSIcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2025Triangle CERSI (Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation) collaborates on regulatory aspects of the opioid use disorder digital health tool development.
• Alcohol and Drug Services (ADS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2025Clinical partner providing expertise in addiction services for the opioid use disorder relapse prevention tool development.
• Morse ClinicminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2025Clinical partner providing addiction treatment expertise for the opioid use disorder digital health research.
• Project Jupyter, UC Berkeley, UCSFcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJupyterHealth collaboration with experts from Berkeley, UCSF, and Project Jupyter to build an open-source platform for wearable sensor data collection and digital biomarker algorithm development.
• NIAID CIVICs NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers working with Duke BIG IDEAs Lab on using wearable technology for early infection detection.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Digital Medicine Society (DiMe): Industry consortium advancing digital medicine through research, partnerships, and standards. Functions as a core partner and ecosystem convener for the lab's opioid use disorder project rather than a direct competitor, but operates in the same digital health research space.

Direct peers

• Harvard Wyss Institute: Biologically inspired engineering institute with active programs in wearable biosensors and digital health. Comparable as a university-affiliated research institute working on wearable health technologies.
• MIT Media Lab — Connected Devices Group: Academic research group developing wearable and connected sensing platforms with health applications. Comparable in wearable sensor innovation and translational research focus.
• Scripps Research Translational Institute: Academic translational research institute (formerly led by Eric Topol) running large-scale wearable digital biomarker studies. Closest academic peer in digital biomarker research at scale.
• Stanford Digital Health Lab: Stanford Medicine research group applying wearable sensors and AI to digital health and biomarker discovery. Directly comparable to Duke BIG IDEAs Lab in mission, methods, and academic operating model.

Broad incumbents

• Apple Health: Apple's consumer health platform built around Apple Watch biosignal data. Convergent on wearable-based health monitoring but operates as a global commercial product platform with vastly greater resources.
• Google Health: Google's health division (including Fitbit post-2021 acquisition) operates consumer wearable platforms and conducts digital biomarker research at global scale. Overlaps with the lab's work but as a broad commercial portfolio rather than a research-only entity.

Emerging players

• Biofourmis: Digital therapeutics company combining wearable biosensors with AI analytics for chronic disease management. Comparable in wearable-based predictive analytics, with commercial regulatory infrastructure the lab lacks.
• Oura Health: Consumer wearable ring company with an active health research program and partnerships (including the DiMe opioid use disorder collaboration with this lab). Comparable in wearable health monitoring and clinical research collaborations.
• Empatica: Medical-grade wearable company with FDA-cleared biosensors used in clinical research and digital biomarker development. Comparable in physiological monitoring and digital biomarker work, with a commercial rather than open-source model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/jessilyn
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/big-ideas-lab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Duke BIG IDEAs Lab