Bloom Science Raises $12 Million for Microbiome-based Treatments for Rare Neurological Diseases

Bloom Science, which is developing engineered microbiome-based treatments for rare neurological and inflammatory diseases, successfully closed a $12 million series A financing to advance initial programs in drug resistant epilepsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Photo: Christopher Reyes, founder and CEO of Bloom Science

Leaps by Bayer and the ALS Investment Fund led the financing with participation by Apollo Health Ventures, as well as existing investor, Joyance Partners.

Bloom Science novel drug discovery platform, IrisRx, reverse translates clinical treatments to identify the compositional and functional microbiome building blocks. By focusing on the microbiome, the collection of trillions of bacteria that live in and on the human body, Bloom is pioneering microbiome-based therapies targeting the gut-immune-brain axis, an interconnected network comprised of microbes in the gastrointestinal tract, the host immune system, the central nervous system, and the brain.

Bloom’s microbial drug candidates are rationally selected and engineered to target key underlying disease pathways disrupted by environmental, age-related and/or genetic factors. These therapeutics have the potential to provide patients with much needed therapeutic options for a broad spectrum of neurological and inflammatory diseases.

Bloom Science will use the series A financing to advance its pipeline including lead program BL-001 being developed for orphan, drug-resistant epilepsies. The drug candidate consists of proprietary microbes necessary and sufficient to reproduce the clinical efficacy observed with the ketogenic diet, targeting neuronal hyperexcitation and changes in brain levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid that serves as the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter.

The financing will also be used to accelerate the development of Bloom’s therapeutic candidate for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare, progressive, and fatal condition that affects motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord and results in severe disability, paralysis and eventually death.

The gut microbiome has been linked to severity of disease in ALS and represents a novel and promising potential target for treatment and disease modification. Bloom is also applying its IrisRx platform towards advancing discovery programs in neurodegeneration, dementia and inflammation.

“Bloom Science was born out of a vision to harness the gut-immune-brain axis and exponentially expand the landscape of available therapies for patients with severe or untreatable neurological and inflammatory conditions,” said Christopher Reyes, founder and CEO of Bloom Science. “This investment by our preeminent global syndicate fuels the further development of Bloom’s pipeline and represents a significant opportunity to ally with like-minded investors who share our ambitious goals.”

The investment will enable Bloom to file an Investigational New Drug application for BL-001 in refractory epilepsy and advance into phase I clinical trials, as well as further expand development of its platform and advance its research and talent acquisition.

Author: Rare Daily Staff