Conventional drug testing treats the brain as a uniform system, ignoring its distinct cellular neighbourhoods, spatial architectures, and localised disease signatures. DNAxon integrates single-cell and spatial multi-omics to build a dedicated spatial AI engine for neuropharmacology. By predicting how drugs interact with human brain tissue at the single-cell level, we forecast clinical efficacy, map off-target neurotoxicity, and identify responder subgroups before a single patient is dosed.
Developing CNS therapies is one of the most complex challenges in modern medicine, historically limited by the inability to track drug interactions within the brain's physical architecture. Our mission is to unlock the missing layer of spatial intelligence. By illuminating the exact cellular coordinates of disease, we de-risk partner assets and drive our own proprietary target discovery with unprecedented visibility and confidence.
What traditionally takes over a decade of trial and error can now be mapped and de-risked in a fraction of the time.
A brain-dedicated intelligence layer built on human single-cell multi-omic data — learning the shared and divergent molecular signatures of neurological disease across cell types, brain regions and disease states. Anchored in human neurobiology, it features a cross-species translation module that identifies which preclinical signals survive the animal-to-human transition — targeting the gap responsible for 92% of CNS trial failures.
Maps the molecular landscape across brain regions and cellular neighbourhoods by integrating single-cell multi-omic data with spatial assays — capturing how drug targets behave within the intact spatial architecture of human neural tissue at single-cell resolution. As volumetric spatial methods mature, DNAxon is designed to incorporate 3D resolution.
The de-risking layer for CNS neuropharmacology. By predicting drug behaviour at the single-cell level, we forecast blood-brain barrier penetrance, map off-target neurotoxicity, and identify responder subgroups across genetically distinct patient populations. This dual-purpose engine fuels our internal drug discovery pipeline and enables strategic partners to translate spatial multi-omic intelligence into informed clinical decisions.
Most AI platforms solve for one or two of these dimensions. Few are dedicated exclusively to the CNS. Fewer still integrate spatial multi-omics with in silico clinical drug response prediction. DNAxon is engineered to operate at the intersection of all three. The table below reflects the current landscape as understood from published sources and public company information.
| Company / Model | Brain-Specific | Spatial | Drug Discovery | Status | Data Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recursion | Multi-disease | No spatial | ✓ | Nasdaq: RXRX | Cell imaging |
| Isomorphic Labs | All targets | No spatial | ✓ | $2.1B Series B | Molecular |
| Aitia | Partial (neuro + oncology) | No spatial | ✓ | $65M raised | Multi-omic |
| BrainStorm Therapeutics | Brain | No spatial | ✓ | Early stage | scRNA + organoids |
| scGPT-spatial | All tissues | ✓ | ✗ | Academic preprint 2025 | scRNA + spatial |
| Nicheformer | 73 organs | ✓ | ✗ | Nature Methods 2025 | Multi-tissue |
| BrainBeacon | Brain | ✓ | ✗ | bioRxiv preprint 2025 | Cross-species spatial |
| CellType | All biology | No spatial | ✓ | YC W26 · Founded 2025 | scRNA only |
| DNAxon ★ | Brain-dedicated | Spatial | Drug response | Concept stage | Public datasets |
UK Biobank · Allen Brain Atlas · GTEx Brain · ADNI · ROSMAP · PsychENCODE · AMP-AD · PPMI · Human Cell Atlas · NDKP Portal
DNAxon is at the concept and pre-incorporation stage. We are seeking scientific collaborators, advisors and early partners who want to work on one of the hardest unsolved problems in medicine — predicting how drugs behave in the human brain at single-cell spatial resolution before a single patient is dosed.
Neuroscientists, bioinformaticians, clinicians, computational biologists, computer scientists, biostatisticians and mathematicians who want to contribute to building a spatially-resolved neurogenomics AI platform at the earliest stage.
Pharma R&D veterans, academic directors, and industry leaders who can guide scientific strategy and open pharma doors. Advisory equity available.
Research coordinators, patient advocates, science communicators and academic partners who want to support the translation of spatial neurogenomics research into a clinical reality.
Angels, impact investors and early-stage biotech funds who believe the next advance in neurodegeneration will come from spatially-resolved AI genomics — and want to be involved at the earliest stage.
The most important conversations happen at the earliest stage.
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