We're thrilled to be an early investor in Modulo Bio, who just emerged from stealth mode with an $8M seed funding round, to help patients grappling with incapacitating neurodegenerative diseases.
We're thrilled to join forces with our partners at Initialized Capital, Cantos, Spacecadet, Builders VC, Refactor Capital, and Hawktail in backing the company's pioneering efforts to advance their proprietary Modulo Neuroimmune Platform.
Microglia play a key role in many neurodegenerative disorders
Microglia are resident immune cells of the central nervous system. Metaphorically speaking, they can be called the Swiss Army Knife of the brain because they can serve a variety of functions from activating pro or anti-inflammatory responses, and clearing debris to helping with neural development.
Comparable to the macrophages found in other parts of the body, microglia play a large role in immune surveillance and phagocytosis. However, Microglia have been shown to play a key role in many neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, and Multiple Sclerosis.
While in the early stages of diseases, microglia are activated to perform their natural, protective responses, as the disease progresses, microglia can become over-activated, making them harmful rather than protective.
At this stage, microglia can release reactive oxygen species, proteolytic enzymes, and pro-inflammatory molecules, all of which can lead to serious cell damage or even cell death.
Microglia stuck in this neurotoxic state can become a key driver of central nervous system disorders.
Therefore, research has suggested that perhaps targeting microglia could potentially be a strategy for treating such diseases. Modulo Bio has a unique focus on the microglia cell’s ability to shift between the protective and toxic states.
Reprogramming microglia using artificial intelligence and an iterative machine learning model
Modulo has built a neuroimmune platform based on the integration of an iterative machine learning model and a clinically relevant cellular model which guides the discovery of novel disease-targeted neuroimmune therapeutics. Their key insight focuses on developing strategies to reprogram microglia cells from toxic to protective states using small molecules.
Utilizing AI and advanced cell models, they have successfully developed the Modulo Neuroimmune Platform, designed to harness the cellular intelligence of microglia. Through this innovative platform, their team of scientists can generate predictions about potential targets in therapy and then subsequently validate these predictions.
By pursuing this approach, Modulo has identified two therapeutic programs which are under development. Modulo has demonstrated early proof-of-concept with a lead product candidate showing the ability to restore motor function in mouse models with ALS, which could have major implications for further development of the therapeutic.
The leadership team behind Modulo brings with it an extensive background in the biotech sector.
Michael Horowitz, ESQ, who serves as CEO has over 15 years of leadership experience in biotech and led a successful exit of Sea Lane Biotechnologies. Scott Patterson, Co-founder & CTO, is highly experienced in software, data science, computational biology, genomics and lab automation and was a founding engineer and VP of Engineering at Counsyl, which was acquired by Myriad for $375M. Justin Ichida, PhD, who is a founding scientist, is a tenured professor at USC focused on neurodegenerative diseases and has published over 70 papers on the subject.
We're thrilled to be early backers of Modulo, and eagerly anticipate assisting their endeavors in addressing neurodegenerative conditions through their innovative neuroimmune platform!