We are working to develop breakthrough medicines for the treatment of major neurodegenerative diseases that have defied years of attempts to develop effective drugs.

At the center of neurodegeneration is a storm of toxic proteins that shape-shift and aggregate through a complex biophysical process. This amyloid aggregation pathway generates intermediate small protein species that are reactive, fleeting, and neurotoxic—on the way to the formation of mature, enduring amyloid plaques. This amyloid oligomer storm is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases as well as other neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS.

A growing body of evidence points to the fleeting oligomers—rather than end-product fibrils and plaques— as the toxic protein forms directly responsible for neuronal death and neurodegeneration in amyloid diseases. Until now, however, their elusive nature has rendered them “undruggable” with conventional drug discovery technologies.

We have built a broad drug discovery platform that has solved the technical hurdles to assaying, analyzing, and targeting fleeting neurotoxic oligomers, enabling us to directly address this central molecular cause of neurodegeneration.

We believe this approach opens a new frontier for the discovery and development of transformative new classes of medicines to tame the storm of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.