SereNeuro Therapeutics Closes Oversubscribed Pre-Seed Financing to Advance Non-Opioid Pain Pipeline

Lead program SN101, a first-in-class non-opioid iPSC-derived therapy for chronic joint pain, moves toward IND-enabling studies

BALTIMORE and PHOENIX, Oct. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SereNeuro Therapeutics, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing non-opioid therapies for pain, today announced the close of its oversubscribed pre-seed financing. The round advances the company's lead program, SN101, toward Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling activities and supports its second program, SN102.

The syndicate included two Maryland-based venture firms and a physician investor. Qualifying investors structured their investments through Maryland's Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit at the enhanced refundable rate available to companies located in a federal Opportunity Zone, which includes SereNeuro's East Baltimore site.

"Non-opioid pain therapeutics have become one of the most active corners of biotech this year, with an IPO, nine-figure financings, and pharma licensing deals, nearly all of it chasing one family of sodium channels for symptom relief," said Daniel Saragnese, MBA, CEO and co-founder of SereNeuro Therapeutics. "SereNeuro brings a different biology to the same problem. SN101 is made of living human sensory neurons that carry the full pain-channel identity of a native human dorsal root ganglion, or DRG, neuron: Nav1.7, Nav1.8, and Nav1.9, which most stem-cell-derived neurons lack. SN101 cells are designed to relieve pain and preserve the joint. This capital, with the non-dilutive funding we continue to secure, carries SN101 toward the manufacturing and preclinical studies an IND requires."

SN101 is an off-the-shelf, non-opioid therapy made of purified human pain-sensing neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Delivered by a single injection into the affected joint, it is designed to relieve chronic joint pain while preserving joint structure, and it has demonstrated preclinical proof of concept. The technology was developed by co-founders Xinzhong Dong, Ph.D., Gabsang Lee, D.V.M., Ph.D., and Zhuolun (Poppy) Wang, Ph.D.

"Gabsang and I began this collaboration to build a human iPSC-derived model of peripheral pain-sensing neurons, pure and specific enough to control for neuron subtype, so we could discover new non-opioid pain drug targets. It was never meant to be a drug. We were testing the cells' function to validate the model. A joint pain model was available, and when we put the cells into the joint, we saw a therapeutic effect we had not set out to find. That observation became SN101," said Xinzhong Dong, Ph.D., co-founder and scientific advisor.

SN102, the company's second program, is a gene therapy for trigeminal neuralgia and other neuropathic pain. "Our goal with SN102 is a single treatment that turns down pain signaling in trigeminal neuralgia and other neuropathic pain, from the neurons themselves, without opioids and without numbing everything else," said Zhuolun (Poppy) Wang, Ph.D., co-founder and scientific advisor.

In September 2026, after the financing closed, SereNeuro received its first NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award, supporting SN102 through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, an NIH-wide effort to speed scientific solutions to the opioid crisis, including non-addictive treatments for pain. SereNeuro's pipeline is built for that purpose.

The company was also selected by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine to present an Innovation Spotlight at the 2026 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, taking place today:

• Date: Monday, October 5, 2026
• Time: 2:30 p.m. MST (5:30 p.m. EDT)
• Location: Frank Lloyd Wright Ballroom G, Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix

About SereNeuro Therapeutics
SereNeuro Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class non-opioid therapies for pain, including iPSC-derived neuron therapies and gene therapies, led by SN101. For more information, visit www.sereneuro.com.

SereNeuro's SN102 program is supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43DE035747. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Media Contact
Daniel Saragnese, MBA, CEO and co-founder
[email protected]
+1 410-205-9387

SOURCE SereNeuro Therapeutics, Inc.