Axial goes with its gut in $19m series A

US-based biopharmaceutical company Axial Biotherapeutics spun out of the Mazmanian Laboratory at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) on Wednesday with a $19.2m series A round featuring healthcare provider Heritage Medical Systems.

Investment managers Longwood Fund and Domain Associates led the round, joining venture capital firm Kairos Ventures and a group of high-net-worth individuals based in Southern California.

Axial was established to capitalise on Sarkis Mazmanian’s research, which examines the link between the human gut microbiome – genes in the trillions of cells of microbes, or micoorganisms that human beings host – and the central nervous system (CNS) in order to develop treatments for CNS disorders.

Mazmanian Laboratory says it was among the first research groups to demonstrate that microbiome interventions can modify the effects of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in mice used as models for human patients.

Axial has licensed exclusive worldwide rights to intellectual property covering a new class of CNS biotherapeutics from Mazmanian Laboratory to build a microbiome discovery platform which targets the connections between the human gut and brain to develop treatments for various neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s and ASD.

In conjunction with the funding round, Axial said it has appointed the company’s co-founder David Donabedian, most recently a partner at Longwood, as chief executive officer and board director.

Mazmanian, co-founder of Axial, said: “By interrogating the biological link between the gut microbiome and the brain, we are discovering pathways and mechanisms that can be leveraged to develop novel treatment options for vastly underserved diseases.

“The discovery that changes in the gut microbiome may cause neurological diseases is a paradigm shift and opens entirely new possibilities for treating patients.”

Donabedian, co-founder and CEO of Axial, said: “There is mounting evidence that the gut microbiome is implicated in brain development and neurological health and we believe we are at the forefront of generating new avenues for microbiome-targeted therapeutic interventions in multiple neurological diseases and disorders.”