Syndeio Biosciences

The ability to regrow lost synapses can be life changing; for Derek Small, founder and CEO of the start-up Syndeio Biosciences, it holds personal relevance. Around a decade ago, Small watched his father’s early-onset dementia worsen as his synaptic connections were lost. Small responded by using his Indianapolis-based venture creation firm, Luson Bio Ventures, to invest in neuroscience.His latest venture, Syndeio, also based in Indianapolis, is focused on targeting synapses to deliver better drugs to treat depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and other conditions thought to originate as problems with the synapse. Syndeio’s lead drug candidate, zelquistinel, is a small molecule that aims to do just that. It is in Phase 2 trials to treat major depressive disorder.Zelquistinel had a journey before landing at Syndeio. The molecule was originally developed by Naurex, a firm that Small previously cofounded. Allergan acquired Naurex and its intellectual property in 2015, but when AbbVie later acquired Allergan, it wasn’t interested in developing zelquistinel. In the meantime, Small had cofounded a new company, Gate Neurosciences. Gate licensed zelquistinel back and continued development of the drug along with other synapse-targeting molecules.Then, this February, Gate acquired Boost Neuroscience, another biotech which was still in stealth. Boost had been spun out of the Stanford University laboratory of Thomas Südhof, a recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on neurotransmitter release and synaptic fusion. Boost brought with it a platform for human synapse network analysis and synapse-targeted drug discovery.The two firms combined and launched as