Clexio and NeuroKaire (formerly Genetika+) Announce Partnership Using Proprietary Antidepressant Screening Platform

Clexio and NeuroKaire (formerly Genetika+) are partnering to screen and characterise Clexio's antidepressant pipeline using Genetika+'s iPSC-derived neurons platform, allowing for the first time an assessment of the functional effects of drugs directly on human neurons with biologically-relevant biomarkers that have been demonstrated to correlate with clinical response, and enabling the advancement of personalized medicine for psychiatry.

As part of a shared commitment to bring better solutions for people suffering from depression, Clexio and Genetika+ are partnering to screen and characterize Clexio’s antidepressant pipeline using Genetika+’s iPSC-derived neurons platform.

Genetika+’s platform encompasses >200 neuronal lines from depression patients with in-depth clinical and demographic characterization and multiple assessments over the course of 12 months, as well as proprietary multi-modal biomarker read-outs on these neurons.

The Genetika+ platform allows, for the first time, assessment of the functional effects of drugs directly on human neurons, the key target cells of antidepressants, with biologically-relevant biomarkers that have been demonstrated to correlate with clinical response. This assessment not only enables a readout of the antidepressant effect of a candidate drug, but also allows for the characterization of a compound with respect to its effect on different depression subpopulations, including those with varying response patterns to other drugs.

Clexio CEO and co-founder, Elisabeth Kogan, said: “we are looking forward to working with Genetika+ and leveraging their unique platform for valuable insights as we develop new therapeutics for Major Depressive Disorder, and to contributing to the advancement of personalized medicine for psychiatry”.

“The ability to obtain functional readouts, which have been studied for decades with a wealth of scientific support behind them, directly from patients suffering from CNS-related diseases, is transformative for the way we diagnose and manage these diseases. This has the potential to transform mental health and neurological diseases in the same way that the molecular characterization of tumors has transformed oncology” said Talia Cohen Solal, co-founder and CEO of Genetika+.