Ceretype Neuromedicine

Ceretype Neuromedicine, founded in 2020, operates at the intersection of neurobiology, advanced imaging, and data science to address the lack of objective biological markers in neuropsychiatry. The company emerged from the academic research of its co-founders, who sought to translate their work in neuroimaging into practical tools for therapeutic development and clinical care. The co-founder and CEO, Emily Stern, MD, is a radiologist and neuroscience researcher with over two decades of experience in psychiatric neuroimaging, having directed research laboratories at institutions like Brigham and Women's Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College. Her career has been dedicated to applying biologically-based tools to improve the lives of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders, a passion that directly led to the formation of Ceretype.

The company's core offering is a proprietary, end-to-end cloud platform that utilizes functional MRI (fMRI) to visualize and quantify brain circuit activity. This technology overcomes historical limitations of fMRI by employing advanced algorithms and multi-echo fMRI to correct for artifacts and signal noise, ensuring reliable and reproducible results across different scanners, sites, and individuals. Ceretype's platform creates detailed neural circuit maps that provide insights into brain function, identify abnormalities associated with disease, and measure the impact of treatments. This service is primarily aimed at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, helping them to de-risk and accelerate the development of new therapies for psychiatric and neurological disorders. By providing objective, biological evidence of a drug's mechanism of action, Ceretype helps its partners optimize clinical trials, stratify patient populations, and make more informed development decisions.

Ceretype's business model is centered on providing services, a platform, and data-driven insights to its partners in the life sciences industry. The company generates revenue by engaging with drug and device developers to integrate its fMRI biomarker technology into their clinical trials. In January 2024, the company announced it had closed an oversubscribed $2 million second seed financing round, led by Cedar Street Group, with participation from investors including Leafy Tunnel and The One Mind Accelerator, to advance its platform. Looking forward, Ceretype anticipates that the biomarkers developed in conjunction with specific drugs during trials can eventually be used in a clinical setting to guide treatment decisions once those drugs are approved. The company is also pursuing 510(k) clearance for its platform to be used as a software as a medical device, signaling a long-term vision to bring precision medicine into routine neuropsychiatric care.

Keywords: fMRI, neuromedicine, psychiatric biomarkers, neurological therapies, clinical trials, brain imaging, neurobiology, drug development, precision neuropsychiatry, CNS disorders, brain circuitry, neuroimaging platform, Emily Stern, therapeutic development, pharmaceutical services, biotech services, mental health, data analytics, medical device, seed funding