Mindimmune Therapeutics Inc. has been awarded a grant by Rhode Island Life Science Hub to accelerate preclinical development work on MITI-101 for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The award will accelerate development work needed to start first-in-human studies.

Casma Therapeutics Inc. has nominated its first development candidate, CSM-101, a first-in-class TRPML1 agonist. CSM-101 is being developed for the treatment of Gaucher’s disease patients with Parkinson’s disease, with the potential to expand into GBA-associated Parkinson’s disease and broader Parkinson’s disease populations.

Chronic pain is a constant challenge to around 20% of the global population, and treatments to mitigate such pain often cause unacceptable side effects because the receptors and signaling pathways involved in pain sensing also drive necessary processes in the heart, lungs and liver. Opioid analgesics can be effective against chronic pain, but they can lead to tolerance and addiction.

Paradromics Inc. became the latest company developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) system to implant its technology, Connexus, into a human. The device was safely implanted, it recorded electrical brain signals and was removed intact in less than 20 minutes. Paradromics hopes to begin clinical trials later this year.