Fresh backing from Michael J Fox Foundation and Wellcome expands Lario’s calcium channel platform into Parkinson’s disease and PTSD.
In a biotech market that has learned to be cautious – sometimes painfully so – moments of conviction stand out. This week, UK-based biotech Lario Therapeutics announced it has secured a combined $2.4 million in grant funding from The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Wellcome to expand its neuronal calcium channel drug discovery platform across central nervous system disorders [1].
For Lario, the funding is a public endorsement from two of the most respected organizations in biomedical research and a signal that highly targeted approaches to brain disease are moving from scientific promise toward clinical plausibility.
Brain disorders are notoriously hard to treat because most drugs act like blunt instruments. They broadly suppress or stimulate neural activity, often trading symptom relief for side effects. Lario’s work takes a different route.
Neurons communicate through electrical signals, and calcium channels help regulate when those signals fire. When specific channels malfunction, brain circuits can misfire – too much, too little or at the wrong time. Instead of “turning down” the entire brain, Lario aims to correct the faulty switch.
Lario’s precision approach focuses on voltage-gated neuronal calcium channels that genetics and biology have tied directly to disease. It is slower, more exacting work, but potentially transformative.
The largest share of the funding, $1.5 million from the Michael J Fox Foundation, will support Lario’s work on CaV1.3, a calcium channel increasingly linked to the biology of Parkinson’s disease progression.
That word, progression, is doing a lot of work here. Most treatments today manage symptoms like tremor or rigidity but do little to slow the disease itself. CaV1.3 has been highlighted by the foundation’s Targets to Therapies initiative as one of the most promising disease-modifying targets, meaning it could influence how Parkinson’s unfolds over time. For patients, slowing decline is about preserving independence, mobility and identity.
Now, you might be wondering why PTSD belongs in the same conversation. Alongside Parkinson’s, Lario is expanding into post-traumatic stress disorder with a $900,000 (£700,000) grant from Wellcome. The funding will help validate CaV2.3, a calcium channel linked by large-scale human genetics studies to increased PTSD risk.
Psychiatric drug development has long been plagued by vague targets and high failure rates. Genetics-backed targets like CaV2.3 offer a clearer biological rationale – a map, rather than a guess. This work builds on Lario’s previously announced $6 million grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation in 2024, which supported preclinical research on CaV2.3 in Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions.
For Lario’s leadership, the awards reinforce the company’s founding logic. Chief Executive Officer Dr Henning Steinhagen said Lario was built to translate strong human genetics and neuronal biology into precision medicines for patients with severe neurological disease, noting that the continued support helps move these programs closer to the clinic.
Meanwhile, chief scientific officer Tom Otis emphasized that the grants recognize a growing body of evidence linking calcium channel dysfunction to core neurological and psychiatric biology, and Lario’s ability to pair that biology with selective small-molecule chemistry.
Importantly, this is not a single-shot bet. Lario’s lead CaV2.3 program is being developed for severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, with IND-enabling studies planned for 2026 and first-in-human trials to follow.
Parkinson’s disease and PTSD are not typically framed as longevity conditions, but they should be. Both erode healthspan long before they shorten lifespan, stealing cognitive clarity, emotional stability and independence.
By targeting the underlying drivers of neuronal dysfunction, Lario’s work aligns with longevity science, moving beyond simply living longer, toward staying neurologically intact for longer. If precision neuroscience succeeds, aging with a resilient brain may become less an aspiration and more an expectation.
In that sense, this $2.4 million is not just funding drug programs. It is an investment in the idea that better brain health is central to what longevity really means.
Photograph of Dr Henning Steinhagen courtesy of Lario Therapeutics
