UCSF spinout Neurona Therapeutics has closed out a $23.5 million Series A round for its technology that allows neuron transplantation to treat neurological diseases.

This stem cell company closed out the first tranche of the round one year ago, as MedCity News reported at the time. The financing is led by The Column Group.

As opposed to taking a small molecule or even antibody approach to treating neurological disease, Neurona “is focused on unique compositions of cells that can be precisely targeted, integrated into damaged neural circuits, and provide activity-dependent regulation,” the company says in a statement.

The idea, says interim CEO Tim Kutzkey, is to create novel therapeutics that permanently repair dysfunctional neural circuits. After all, UCSF researchers have found in animal models that certain neuron transplants can rebalance nervous system activity, as well as fix neural circuits.

“Two decades of discoveries in the fields of stem cell biology, cortical brain development, and cell transplantation have revealed the potential for particular types of neurons to repair the nervous system, representing a possible breakthrough therapy for patients with devastating neurological diseases,” Neurona cofounder Cory Nicholas said in a statement.