New Enterprise Associates has stepped up to help with a $14 million A round designed to get Austin, TX-based startup Lumos Pharmaceuticals in the clinic with a new therapy for an autism spectrum disorder characterized by severe cognitive impairment. Sante Ventures negotiated the original term sheet for Lumos and NEA joined the financing later.
Lumos has been working with a subsidiary of the NIH on LUM-001, an analogue of creatine that was studied by investigators at the University of Cincinnati. The "repurposed" molecule has been shown in animal studies to cross the blood-brain barrier, offering the potential to restore levels of creatine in the brain, which is eliminated by a defect in the transporter gene found in people who suffer from a range of cognitive disorders, including autism.