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DaCapo Brainscience is living true to its name. Translating literally as “from the head” in Latin and figuratively in music as “from the beginning”, da capo is an apt name for DaCapo Brainscience which is innovating the field of neurodegenerative diseases. 

Led by serial entrepreneur and biotech industry veteran, Katrine Bosley, DaCapo Brainscience is focused on creating novel medicines to address progression in neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Parkinson’s Disease. 

Bosley has been at the center of the industry for over 30 years with experience ranging from small startups to titans of industry. The career throughline she draws is consistently being attracted to new science emerging from discovery and applying her skills, experience, and resources to shape this nebulous, exciting science into a therapeutic solution. What drives her the most is seeing the science progress into the clinic. “That’s the stage where I keep coming back”, says Bosley. 

Making medicines that address an underserved patient population is the ultimate goal for DaCapo Brainscience. Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide, with approximately 10 million people globally suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. This number is expected to double by 2050 as Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological condition in the world.  

Currently, there are no adequate medicines to treat, cure, or prevent Parkinson’s, let alone the many other devastating neurological conditions. Researchers are confronted with untangling incredibly complex neural networks (neurons, microglia, astrocytes etc.) and trying to distill the neurological information through the lens of each individual person’s biology. Factors considered when researching Parkinson’s range from cellular processes, to environmental exposures, to genetic changes and motor complications. Key problems faced are extracting insights from small human data sets and using a preclinical model that inadequately captures the complexities of what’s going on inside the brain from a neurological perspective. 

DaCapo Brainscience’s platform is built to address both of these challenges. By using computational approaches and advanced induced pluripotent stem cell models (iPSC), DaCapo has discovered more progression targets for the disease than previously found across the field. From these, they’re focusing on nine newly found progression targets in the neurological pathways to explore how these could unlock new mechanisms for novel medicines to treat Parkinson’s Disease. Bosley and DaCapo’s goal is to eventually expand this process and platform to other neurodegenerative diseases. 

DaCapo is currently a ten-person team in Priced Round and is a resident company at LabCentral. 

To learn more about Katrine Bosley’s wealth of biotech industry knowledge and the next steps for DaCapo, watch our full episode of The Dish with Johannes here on YouTube. If you’re interested in DaCapo’s milestones and obstacles, skip to (8:54) or Parkinsons neuroscience and biology more specifically, jump to (14:03).  

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 A bit about ‘The Dish,’ our new video series  

In this new YouTube series, Johannes Fruehauf, LabCentral’s President and Executive Director, dives deep into the dynamic world of biotech with a series of founders. The series spotlights the stories at the heart of Cambridge’s vibrant biotech culture offering a front-row seat to the innovations that shape the future of biotech. Click here to watch our first episode of the series and be sure to follow us on social media to catch new episodes monthly as they’re released.