Start-up Nilo launches with $101 million for autoimmune drugs targeting “brain-body circuits”

The autoimmune drug landscape is full of products that work by suppressing the immune system – an approach that works but also comes with complications. Nilo Therapeutics is taking a different approach, developing what it describes as a new class of drugs that harness the body’s circuitry to return the immune system to a balanced state. On Wednesday, the startup revealed some details about its approach as well as $101 million to support its work.

Nilo, based in New York, draws on research into interactions between the brain and the immune system. The startup focuses on neural circuits, groups of neurons in the central nervous system that process specific types of information together. Nilo aims to drug the neural circuits that control systemic inflammation.

Nilo’s science is based on scientific discoveries in the laboratory of Charles Zuker, professor of biochemistry, molecular biophysics and neuroscience at Columbia University. Zuker’s research has identified specific neurons in the vagus nerve that regulate systemic immune activation and inflammation. Nilo says that targeting these “master regulator” brain-body circuits can modulate multiple immune pathways in concert, reducing the risk of therapeutic resistance and broadening the potential therapeutic impact. Zuker’s preclinical research was published last year in the journal Nature.

The new funding will be used to establish laboratories in New York, expand Nilo’s R&D team and advance the company’s preclinical programs. The startup hasn’t revealed what diseases it’s studying, only saying its approach has potential application to “a broad spectrum of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases with significant unmet needs.”

Nilo was founded by Zuker alongside Ruslan Medzhitov of Yale University and Steve Liberles of Harvard University in collaboration with The Column Group. This venture capital firm led the startup’s Series A funding alongside DCVC Bio and Lux ​​Capital. Other participants in the round include the Gates Foundation and Alexandria Venture Investments. With this launch, Nilo announced the appointment of Kim Seth as CEO and Board Director. Seth was most recently chief commercial officer of cancer drug developer Repare Therapeutics.

“Nilo is at a moment of transformation,” Laurens Kruidenier, Nilo’s chief scientific officer, said in a prepared statement. “Kim’s leadership and experience will accelerate our mission to translate revolutionary neuroimmunology into medicines that could benefit patients with a wide range of immune-related diseases.”

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