A startup that wants to better understand the relationship our gut has to our brain just raised $66 million
- Kallyope, a biotech startup working to map out the gut-brain axis, has raised $66 million.
- The series B round will help the company get some of its programs nearer to human clinical trials and continue research on the relationship between the gut and its microbes and the brain.
- The hope is that by investigating the gut-brain axis, researchers might be able to better treat certain metabolic conditions, like obesity, as well as neurologic conditions like Parkinson's disease.
A startup working to better understand the relationship our gut has with our brain has raised another $66 million.
New York-based Kallyope raised its series B round from new investors Two Sigma Ventures and Euclidean Capital. They were joined by Polaris Partners, Illumina Ventures, Lux Capital and others that had invested in Kallyope's $44 million series A round in 2015.
Kallyope is trying to figure out how exactly the brain interacts with the gut by mapping it out. By collecting sequencing information about cells in the gut, for example, Kallyope can better figure out how they're connected to neurons in the brain in a series of circuits. Understanding that relationship could lead to pills that could interact with the gut's signals and in turn pass that message along to the brain.
Over the past few years, even since launching the company, a lot has been learned about the gut-brain axis and the microbiome, the assortment of all the bugs that live in and on you that's an integral part of the gut, Kallyope CEO Nancy Thornberry told Business Insider.
That goes beyond conditions traditionally associated with the microbes in our gut, such as stomach and intestinal disorders. "There's now compelling evidence for a link between gut-brain and cognition, mood, and diseases such as autism, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis," Thornberry said.
While Kallyope hasn't given too many specifics about its drug programs, the company's initial focus will be in metabolic conditions, like obesity, as well as neurologic conditions like Parkinson's disease. The recent funding will be used toward building out Kallyope's gut-brain axis platform and getting one of Kallyope's programs near or into human clinical trials.