Welcome to the Summer edition of the Satori Neuro newsletter. We’ve seen some incredible advances in the industry over the past few months, and Neuro has been a hive of activity.
In this issue we explore:
The microbiome as a neural interface
BCI implants and their ethics
Reimagining the economy through ‘brain capital’
Follow Amy around the world
A news roundup from our portfolio companies
CEO Spotlight: Q&A with Phil Strandwitz
Satori Neuro sat down for an interview with Holobiome CEO Phil Strandwitz, who has been amassing and testing a vast trove of gut microbes for human use. Evidence continues to build for a tightly-woven connection between the gut microbiome and the brain. It promises new avenues to influence neurotransmitter systems and support mental health. Phil envisions a time when we can be gardeners of our inner ecosystems and cultivate just the strains of plants we need for optimal wellness.
Holobiome collects human samples and preserves the microbes in a vast bank. It partners with major firms in the space to develop therapies for stress and pain. Through extensive assays it is mapping those microbes onto the factors they promote and the foods required to maintain them.
Compared with novel drug therapy, interventions based on the microbiome have an inherent safety advantage: they use organisms our bodies have already adapted to tolerate—and benefit from—over millions of years. Our wide-ranging discussion explored how certain ways of eating, like the ketogenic and Mediterranean diets, are linked to improved mental health outcomes, as well as what the future might hold.
In the News:
All eyes are on Neuralink, which has the go-ahead to offer its brain-computer interface implant to a second patient after proposing a fix for problems with the first. The high-profile work has attracted fantastic patient engagement, with more than 1,000 people living with quadriplegia having signed up for its patient registry to date.
At Satori Neuro we celebrate the heroism of these pioneering patients, as each new BCI implant is a precious opportunity to expand our understanding. In the long run, we have our eye on the durability and viability of any device that lives in the brain; these are not systems you want to be removing and replacing frequently. We look forward to the day when this type of implant technology is stable over time and performs consistently for the long-term utility of people opting into them.
Hot Topics in Neuroscience:
We’ve been following the recent work of Harris Eyre, who has championed the idea of “brain capital”, a combination of brain health and cognitive skills on which today’s economy relies. Eyre proposes broad societal investment in metaplasticity, neuroscience-based education, and psychological resilience.
In his vision, laid out in A Brain Capital Grand Strategy: toward economic reimagination and elaborated elsewhere, he suggests developing a Brain Capital Index as a metric to measure our progress on this front, as well as Brain Bonds to fund neuroscience breakthroughs.
Many of our existing efforts—early childhood education, removal of lead from our living environments and water, and psychiatric interventions, to name a few—tacitly support the view that Brain Capital is important to our shared future. It strikes us as a good time to name the overarching goal that connects them and work on a coherent strategy that moves toward a world of neuro abundance.
Amy on the Road
South By South West (SXSW 2024) in Austin boasted not one, but two panel discussions that sported Amy’s voice. Listen to The Neurotech Revolution is Here: What Now? for an exploration of neural interfaces and their ethics, or watch Investing in New Frontiers of Health: AI, Psychedelics, the Gut-Brain Axis, and More! for an assessment of underestimated versus overhyped neuro developments, as well as a neglected aspect of innovation: novel business models.
At the Agora Emerging Managers Conference on April 24, Amy discussed best practices for nurturing portfolio companies, the importance of diversity in driving innovation, and her strategies for staying ahead of emerging trends. Watch Amy deliver her perspectives on the innovation landscape at Center for BrainHealth’s Brain3 Summit at the University of Texas at Dallas. Advancing the culture, M2G Ventures’ Mental Health Initiative held a stimulating evening of art and science at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (pictured above), at which Amy spoke.
This May’s SynBioBeta conference, the global synthetic biology gathering in San Jose, featured a neurotech track chaired by Amy. The UBS Asian Investment Conference (pictured below) ran May 27-31 in Hong Kong and brought together more than 2,000 investors and entrepreneurs. Amy spoke on the likely impact of scientific breakthroughs in the coming years. Then, she headed to New York to host a dinner conversation at BrainMind’s special forum on Neuromodulation, BCI & AI.
Where to Find Amy
Watch for Amy in an upcoming issue of Monocle Magazine, along with a conversation on Monocle Radio. We’ll share the online article as soon as it comes available.
Find Amy in Paris, France, June 27-28, where she will be speaking at the boutique event BioElectronic Therapeutics (BETx) hosted by the Rice Global Paris Center.
Portfolio Companies in the News & Other Developments
Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals has announced a collaboration and option-to-license agreement with pharma company AbbVie. The plan is to develop a new generation of neuroplastogen therapies for psychiatric conditions, including mood and anxiety disorders. (Note: Amy serves on the board at Gilgamesh)
Rapport Therapeutics, which develops small molecule drugs for CNS disorders, raised $154 million in its June IPO at a valuation of about $601.4 million. Backed by the venture capital arm of Johnson & Johnson, it plans to use some of the proceeds to further development of its focal epilepsy treatment.
Scientists from Motif Neurotech* published progress on miniature, battery-free epidural cortical stimulators. Only 9 millimeters in width, the device can receive wireless power and activate the motor cortex using 14.5-volt stimulation bursts. This makes possible a safer, more durable implant.
Feel Therapeutics* pitched their digital precision medicine solutions at TechTour Mental & Brain Health 2024 and were awarded ‘best presenting company’. CEO George Eleftheriou was interviewed in April about the latest in wearable data collection technology for mental health.
A dementia research team from Imperial College London made the surprising finding that brain clearance is diminished during sleep. This speaks against the suggestions that sleep clears the brain of metabolites and toxins using the ‘glymphatic’ system.
Before recommending approval of Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug donanemab, the FDA’s advisory panel considered limiting it to patients with low levels of accumulated tau protein (a biomarker of disease severity). Prescribing drugs based on biomarkers is part of a larger trend toward precision neuroscience. [paywalled link]
And finally, on National Pet Day, Apollo Neuro* revealed it’s not just humans who seem to benefit from Apollo’s wearables. Anecdotally, the wristband soothes and relaxes anxious pets when applied to a nervous paw.
*Companies marked with an asterisk are part of the Satori Neuro portfolio.
We would love to hear from you! Reach out to us at neuro@satoricapital.com, and feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested.
Satori Neuro is a fund focusing on mental health, brain health and wellness, the application of neuroscience technologies, and human flourishing.