The landscape of autoimmune drugs is full of products that work by suppressing the immune system — an approach that works but also comes with complications. Nilo Therapeutics is taking a different tack, developing what it describes as a new class of medicines that tap into the circuitry of the body to bring the immune system back to a state of balance. On Wednesday, the startup revealed some details about its approach along with $101 million to support its work.
New York-based Nilo is building on research into the interactions between the brain and the immune system. The startup is focusing on neural circuits, groups of neurons in the central nervous system that together process specific types of information. Nilo aims to drug neural circuits that control systemic inflammation.
Nilo’s science is based on scientific discoveries from the laboratory of Charles Zuker, a Columbia University professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and of neuroscience. Zuker’s research identified specific neurons of the vagus nerve that regulate systemic immune activation and inflammation. Nilo says targeting these “master regulator” brain-body circuits can modulate multiple immune pathways in concert, reducing the risk of therapeutic resistance and broadening the potential therapeutic impact. Zuker’s preclinical research was published last year in the journal Nature.
The new financing will go toward establishing laboratories in New York, growing Nilo’s R&D team, and advancement of the company’s preclinical programs. The startup has not disclosed which diseases it is studying, other than to say its approach has potential application to “a wide spectrum of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases with large unmet need.”
Nilo was founded by Zuker alongside Yale University’s Ruslan Medzhitov and Harvard University’s Steve Liberles in collaboration with The Column Group. That venture capital firm led the startup’s Series A financing alongside DCVC Bio and Lux Capital. Other participants in the round include the Gates Foundation and Alexandria Venture Investments. With the launch, Nilo announced the appointment of Kim Seth as CEO and board director. Seth was most recently chief business officer of cancer drug developer Repare Therapeutics.
“Nilo is at a transformative moment,” Nilo Chief Scientific Officer Laurens Kruidenier said in a prepared statement. “Kim’s leadership and experience will accelerate our mission to translate breakthrough neuro-immunology into medicines that could benefit patients across a broad range of immune-driven diseases.”
Image: mrspopman, Getty Images
