Bionaut Labs builds magnetically driven miniature robots designed to deliver therapies directly to the midbrain, offering a more targeted alternative to systemic drug delivery. The company is pursuing treatments for extremely debilitating neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, and is prioritizing work on malignant glioma brain tumors and Dandy-Walker Syndrome. It emerged from stealth after founding in 2017 and is based in Los Angeles. Bionaut has set near-term technical and regulatory milestones, including pre-clinical studies scheduled for 2023 and human clinical trials planned for the following year. The startup plans to use new funding to advance R&D on its robotic delivery technology and to progress toward those milestones. Founders Michael Shpigelmacher and Aviad Maizels previously worked on PrimeSense, the Israeli 3D-imaging firm behind Microsoft Kinect. Bionaut Labs is developing the Bionaut™ precision medicine modality: remote-controlled microscale robots that deliver biologics, nucleic acids, or small molecule therapies locally to targeted CNS disease areas. The devices are smaller than a millimeter, contain moving parts controlled by a magnetic controller, and release therapeutic payloads from a cargo compartment. Engineering flexibility allows custom geometries and surface characteristics to design Bionaut™ therapies for a wide range of localized brain diseases. The company has reported preclinical safety and efficacy in a large animal model and successful treatment of human glioma tumors established in mice, findings the company says pave the way to human clinical trials. Proceeds from a $20M financing led by Khosla Ventures will support the lead glioma program through preclinical development and advance a Huntington's disease program. Bionaut Labs is led by a team of medical, engineering, and drug-development experts and maintains headquarters in Los Angeles with additional R&D sites in Israel and at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

Total raised

$63M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Nov 2022