neurodegenerative-diseases
(6)
Vertero Therapeutics, Inc.
Vertero Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Woburn, Massachusetts, developing oral small-molecule drugs for neurodegenerative diseases by targeting causative drivers in the body's periphery - primarily the gut - rather than only the brain. Formerly Axial Therapeutics, the company rebranded as Vertero in October 2025. Its lead candidate, VT-5006, is a gut-selective small molecule for Parkinson's disease that targets CsgA, a bacterial protein linked to protein aggregation and neuroinflammation, and is entering Phase 1 trials.
Atalanta Therapeutics
Atalanta Therapeutics is a Boston-based biotechnology company pioneering RNA interference (RNAi) therapies for diseases of the brain and spinal cord. Its proprietary divalent small interfering RNA (di-siRNA) platform is engineered to silence disease-causing genes durably and broadly across the central nervous system - long the hardest place in the body to reach with RNAi. Founded out of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School by leaders in the RNAi field, including Nobel laureate Craig Mello, the company is advancing wholly-owned programs in KCNT1-related epilepsy and Huntington's disease toward the clinic, alongside collaborations with Biogen and Genentech.
Brenig Therapeutics
Brenig Therapeutics is a neurology-focused biotechnology company building disease-modifying small-molecule therapies for Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Founded in 2021 and backed by $65 million in Series A funding led by NEA, Brenig pairs AI- and machine-learning-driven discovery with structure-based design to engineer brain-penetrant molecules that hit the central nervous system while sparing the rest of the body. Its lead candidate, BT-267, is a selective LRRK2 inhibitor now in human trials, followed by BT-409, a brain-selective NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor targeting neuroinflammation.
Neomorph, Inc.
Neomorph is a San Diego clinical-stage biotech building molecular glue degraders - small molecules that recruit the cell's own disposal machinery to destroy disease-driving proteins long written off as 'undruggable.' Founded in 2020 out of Deerfield Management with scientific founders who decoded how thalidomide-class drugs work, the company has assembled what it calls the world's largest proprietary molecular glue target space across a broad portfolio of E3 ubiquitin ligases. It has signed multibillion-dollar discovery pacts with AbbVie, Novo Nordisk, and Biogen, dosed its first patient with lead candidate NEO-811 in kidney cancer, and raised roughly $209M across Series A and B.
Verge Genomics
Verge Genomics is a South San Francisco biotech that builds drugs from human biology instead of mouse models. By assembling one of the largest proprietary multi-omics datasets drawn directly from human brain and tissue samples, then mining it with machine learning, its CONVERGE platform identifies disease targets and drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, ALS-FTD and Parkinson's. Founded in 2015 by Alice Zhang and Jason Chen, the company famously moved its first AI-discovered drug from research to the clinic in four years. After that ALS candidate failed its early trial, Verge has refocused on its core asset, the platform, repositioning to supply other drug developers with human-grounded target data.
Vishwanath Lingappa
Vishwanath Lingappa is the CEO and CTO of Prosetta Biosciences, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company he founded in 2003 after 22 years as a faculty member at UCSF. An MD-PhD with a doctorate from The Rockefeller University under Nobel laureate Gunter Blobel, Lingappa developed a proprietary Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System (CFPSS) drug discovery platform that targets transient multi-protein complexes - a class of drug targets largely ignored by traditional pharma. His company is pursuing small-molecule therapeutics across neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's), oncology, and infectious diseases (COVID-19, HIV, influenza), and won an ARPA-H Dash competition for a pan-cancer drug candidate. With over 157 publications and 12,800+ citations, Lingappa bridges rigorous academia with commercial biotech ambition.