Roughly half of all approved medicines treat diseases that are local in nature where precision targeting with Bionaut™ therapeutics could offer efficacy and safety that can’t be achieved by other modalities. The broader potential of Bionauts™ extends to many diseases where conventional therapies are limited or lacking. Two diseases we are initially targeting—Parkinson’s disease and glioma—have limited treatment options.
Bionauts™ enable safe, minimally invasive access to deep brain structures to treat CNS disorders by facilitating precise delivery of therapeutic agents. This approach enhances efficacy and eliminates off-target toxicity, while also allowing the targeting of a wide range of localized diseases with almost any type of therapy. This includes diseases of the brain and central nervous system, which are hard to treat with conventional therapies struggling to cross the blood-brain barrier.
For example, with Parkinson’s disease there are no disease-modifying therapeutics available. While several potential therapeutics are showing promise in mid- to late-stage clinical development, being able to deliver the necessary therapeutic dose to the midbrain in a safe manner would greatly benefit patients.
Bionauts™ can be engineered to optimize the therapeutic index in different diseases. Because Bionauts™ are multifunctional, they also hold the potential to redefine surgery in a non-invasive or micro-invasive way, as well as be used as a diagnostic device.