Specific targets were not disclosed, but Merck KGaA is betting the artificial intelligence technologies of Exscientia and BenevolentAI will discover into new drugs for cancer, neurology, and immunology.

Rapport Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech that was founded last year, raised $150 million in Series B financing, bringing its total funding to date to $250 million. The company’s platform leverages receptor-associated proteins to create neurology drugs that have more focused activity in the brain, going after disease-driving circuits and cell types.

GrayMatters Health recently received 510(k) clearance from the FDA to market its flagship product, which is a self-neuromodulation digital therapy for PTSD. The device uses neurofeedback on specific biomarkers to help patients identify and utilize their own mental strategy for lowering their emotional response.

Red Tree Venture Capital has closed a $272 million fund focused on investing in West Coast life sciences companies. The firm’s founders say they’re filling a need by providing financial support for innovations emerging from the region’s academic labs.

Memory Health CEO Edward Shehab talked about taking a preventive approach to neurodegenerative conditions.

The financing round was led by Concord Health Partners, with AlbaCore Capital Group and Hambro Perks also contributing. The latest haul follows a $125 million raise that the company announced in October.

Nines received 510(k) clearance for a system that monitors CT scans for likely cases intracranial hemorrhage and mass effect, two conditions associated with strokes. The system prioritizes these cases for review from radiologists, letting patients receive a diagnosis faster.  

Insightec, a company making an ultrasound device that can be used to treat essential tremor, raised $150 million. The company now has a post-money valuation of $1.3 billion.

Alder, based in a suburb of Seattle, has a monoclonal antibody that it has investigated as a treatment for migraine and is under FDA review, with the agency expected to decide on its approval in February of next year. Shares of Alder were up 83 percent on the news.

While well-developed in cancers, precision medicine’s readiness for prime time beyond oncology varies markedly from disease to disease. But reimbursement remains a significant hurdle.

The trial’s primary endpoint will be one for which the drug, OV101, produced encouraging but mixed results in a Phase II study of patients with Angelman syndrome.

The move comes less than two months after the high-profile failure of aducanumab, which it had developed with Biogen, and the initiation a day later of a Phase III study of another amyloid beta-targeting drug, BAN 2401.

Biogen halting its Phase III trial of aducanumab last month had many proclaiming the amyloid beta hypothesis’ demise. But many doctors soldier on, while others see potential alternative uses for Abeta-targeting drugs.

Nature Medicine mouse study shows once-weekly GLP-1 receptor agonist slowed Parkinson’s disease progression.

The company will use the funding to develop mGlu4 PAMs licensed from Vanderbilt University.

The company, which cut 300 neuroscience R&D jobs in January, is making the funding a centerpiece of its $600 million VC boost.

The funding is aimed at commercializing the device in the U.S. and other markets, according to the company’s website citing The Australian Financial Review.

Viz.AI’s product uses a form of artificial intelligence to analyze computed tomography images of the brain to detect signs of a stroke.

Through its Neural Engineering System Design program, DARPA is sponsoring research into a new generation of technologies that could better enable communication between devices and the brain.

Assessing mild traumatic brain injury with a blood test could be tremendously useful for the military. More than 360,000 service members have suffered a TBI since 2000, and diagnosing them has often been inexact

Researchers at NYU’s Langone Medical Center and other institutions have test-driven a new approach to mitigate multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms, combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with cognitive training.

The deal comes five months afterSpecialists On Call announced $50 million in new funding. At the time, the company said it would take some of the money to look for acquisition opportunities.

At the center of the scientists’ concerns is the lack of studies of transcranial direct stimulation at the frequencies many end users experiment with — for example, stimulating daily for months or longer.