Human 2D neural-network models
Patient-derived cells are grown into living human brain networks on a dish, a faithful, scalable window into real disease biology.
Neuroscience drug discovery
Unlocking novel neuroscience therapeutics with an AI-assisted target discovery platform built on the brain's own neural networks.
The opportunity
An aging population faces an accelerating wave of cognitive decline. Tens of millions of people live with conditions that today's medicines manage but do not cure.
For decades, neurological drug discovery has been built on flawed assumptions. Hundreds of failed clinical trials and billions in wasted funding point to the same conclusion: the field needs new targets, and a fundamentally better way to find them.
The science
Healthy cognition depends on properly formed, properly communicating neural networks. The tiny connection points between neurons, the dendritic spines, are disrupted early and consistently across Alzheimer's disease, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other neurological conditions.
Domina was founded on a single insight: these disorders share a common underlying mechanism. By targeting this early, functional read-out, we aim to restore healthy neural function rather than simply mask its absence.
Recent validation of neural-network dysregulation well ahead of symptom onset gives us a foundation the field did not have even five years ago. The window to get ahead of this crisis is open, and Domina is built to move through it.
The platform
At the heart of Domina is a patentable, AI-assisted target discovery platform. We grow human brain neural-network models from patient cells, then use machine learning to read their communication signatures and find compounds that restore healthy function.
Patient-derived cells are grown into living human brain networks on a dish, a faithful, scalable window into real disease biology.
Machine learning reads how each network signals and where diseased networks diverge from healthy ones.
Distinct disease signatures reveal upstream targets that shape neural-network formation, mechanisms the industry has not yet explored.
We screen for compounds that renormalize network function, then validate the strongest hits as potential first-in-class therapeutics.
First-in-class compounds targeting novel mechanisms across a pipeline of cognitive disorders.
The pipeline
A single biological idea, restoring neural-network function reverses cognitive decline, generates therapeutic programs across many cognitive disorders. Our most advanced work is anchored in Alzheimer's disease and bipolar disorder.
Mapping pipeline
The team
Deep expertise across bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, neuroscience, and stem cell biology.
Co-Founder & CEO
25+ years in bioinformatics and genomics; repeat biotech founder.
VP of Discovery
35+ years in medicinal chemistry and neurological drug discovery.
VP of Biology
25+ years in cell biology and diagnostics; assay development and MOA elucidation.
Co-Founder & SAB
Director, Center for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine, Sanford Burnham Prebys.
Board of Directors
Managing Partner, LongevityTech.fund.
Board of Directors
Managing Partner, Inflection Point Bio.
Get in touch
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