What Is CUREator+? How 7 Australian Startups Are Sharing $15.6 Million for Dementia Research
Synopsis
From gene editing and AI to new medicines and early detection, seven Australian startups are taking different approaches to dementia. Here’s where the government-backed $15.6 million is going.
A total of $15.6 million in government-funded grants is being split between seven Australian startups and research-led companies searching for innovative solutions regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and management of dementia and cognitive decline.
Funding is being provided through the next round of CUREator+ Dementia & Cognitive Decline, a programme funded by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF). The seven projects span the spectrum of new medicines and gene editing to digital health and artificial intelligence (AI).
This funding matters even more since it is non-dilutive, meaning the companies don’t have to give away any stakes in return for the grants. This can be an important source of capital for companies at the earliest stages of health businesses, where it may take years and tremendous funding outlays to get a treatment or technology to market.
However, the programme is not just about funding startup companies. To move the Australian medical research needle from the lab to commercial products and companies, CUREator+ was created.
What is CUREator + Dementia & Cognitive Decline?
CUREator+ Dementia & Cognitive Decline is a national research and commercialisation programme funded by the Australian Government through the Medical Research Future Fund.
The program is run by ANDHealth and Dementia Australia in conjunction with Brandon BioCatalyst. It centres on early Australian medical research and breakthroughs that may sometimes be sold on the open market for dementia and cognitive decline
The programme has a diverse portfolio of technologies. These include treatments, diagnostics, biomarkers, and medical and assistive devices, as well as digital health technologies. It hopes to enable innovation that may improve the detection of dementia, its treatment or the monitoring of response to treatment or the quality of life of those living with it.
Each project has two stages of funding through CUREator+, up to $1 million in stage 1 and an additional $4 million available in stage 2. You can receive $1 million to $2.5 between multiple stages, with financing being delivered in tranches based on milestones negotiated ahead of time. In the second phase, successful projects will compete for further funding.
Companies will also receive commercial advice, expert support and the guidance of mentors, alongside access to industry and investment networks as part of the programme. That means it isn’t just about whether or not the science works, but also about enabling researchers and founders to get on with building a company and getting product onto shelves
Who are the seven startups that have landed the $15.6 million?
The seven startups work on vastly different issues. Some are working to develop potential treatments; some examine the ways in which technology could assess dementia or cognitive decline sooner.
Kinoxis Therapeutics received $2.5M for market-based development of drugs for neuroinflammation, pain and behaviours due to dementia.c
The products stem from the Melbourne company behind medicines for conditions involving changes in the brain. Its lead programme, KNX100, is undergoing a Phase 2 clinical study in patients with dementia-related agitation. The startup also secured an additional $6.75 million in equity funding, on top of the CUREator+ grant money.
TasTest also received $2.5 million. The University of Tasmania-developed technology looks for dementia risk before observable memory symptoms.
TasTest uses everyday digital activities to assess variables including hand movements, reaction time, memory, visual processing and speech/language. The developers themselves are looking to be able to detect differences associated with dementia risk a decade to two decades before cognitive syndromes develop. It has been developed and tested using over 5,000 research participants across Tasmania and interstate.
Synerva Therapeutics, got $2.49 million to develop protective treatments from nerve-cell death in models of Parkinson's disease and other dementias associated with parkinsonism. Its work seeks to identify drugs that could properly target the processes that kill nerve cells in these diseases, rather than managing the symptoms of them.
A Queensland-based treatment provider, Quinthera received $2.43 million for an oral medicine to target damaging inflammation linked to Alzheimer's and related dementias.
Quinthera is a University of Queensland spinoff. It is designed to target C5aR1, a protein that researchers are studying in relation to inflammation involved in Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative dementias. The newly obtained funding will be used to advance the candidate through preclinical development and accumulate additional supporting data needed to support clinical development of the therapy.
CodeBreakers, a gene-editing treatment startup for childhood dementia caused by mitochondrial disease has received $2.13 million.
That project is on the more niche side of what the funding round covers. Whereas many of the recipients are targeting diseases that only affect older people, CodeBreakers is targeting a rare type of childhood disease and examining whether gene editing could tackle its root cause.
Based in Victoria, Healthily attracted $1.93 million to develop a voice platform powered by artificial intelligence for the early detection of cognitive decline in older Australians.
Instead of building a new drug, the firm is investigating whether a person’s voice could be used to uncover indicators of cognitive decline. The project aligns with the broader scope of digital health and early detection supported by this programme.
Newcastle-based Intracellica Bio was awarded the grant for $1.61 million, to develop an antibody treatment for Tau protein inside brain cells as one of the seventh recipients funded through Queensland jobs and economic recovery programs between July 2020 and March 2023.
The public is led to this project, which was also the fruit of research at the Queensland Brain Institute of the University of Queensland. Antibodies designed to enter neurons and reach Tau, which is closely associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, are being researched. The funding will go towards additional testing of the technology and early-phase safety trials.
Why is it so important for these companies to receive funding from CUREator+?
From lab to life for a health startup, the timeline can take years. Exploratory projects like the potential treatment could take years before we see the results of any research and testing, and a diagnostic or digital health product needs to prove that it can deliver reliable results before widespread adoption.
So, early funding is especially critical. CUREator+ invests capital in milestones to help the companies reach a desired development stage and helps connect them to people with commercial and industry experience. The fact that the grants are non-dilutive means those companies can take the funding without relinquishing any ownership of their businesses at this stage.
It is also a means to equip companies for what comes next. By bridging the gap between companies building with CUREator+ and potential industry partners, venture capital firms and institutional investors, we offer companies a path to explore future fundraising as their projects evolve.
That is a critical difference between providing funding for research and enabling management to turn it into a commercial concern. The programme specifically seeks out commercialisable projects and hopes to prepare researchers and founders to establish companies that can attract additional funding.
What do the new numbers tell us about dementia research?
The seven projects demonstrate that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to dementia and cognitive decline.
Other funding includes a potential treatment for agitation in dementia, a digital tool to detect risk up to 30 years before onset of symptoms, an oral drug to combat nerve-cell death, inflammation-targeting small molecules and gene-editing strategies relevant to certain childhood dementias; as well as technology from artificial intelligence (voice analysis) and one antibody on drug ability to reach Tau within neurons.
For the seven recipients, the priority is to use the funding to get to their next stage. More broadly, the program aims to assist in translating Australian research into technologies and companies that eventually can advance outcomes for people living with dementia and are experiencing cognitive decline.
What does it mean for Australian entrepreneurs and businesses?
This most recent financing round displays the power of government-supported programs in providing entrepreneurs additional runway to advance high-risk healthcare concepts beyond the reach of purely private investment at early stages.
For founders working on drugs, diagnostics or health technologies, the journey between research and a final sellable product can be a long one with lots of funding required before any products leave the shelf. Another early-stage capital source that founders and existing investors will not have to part with equity are non-dilutive grants.
CUREator+ provides access to commercialisation know-how, networks and potential investors at an industry level. It also means the programme is not just another championing individual research projects; it is trying to help take promising research into scalable Australian healthcare enterprises.
The seven companies also illustrate the breadth of commercial opportunities that are arising from Australian medical research for the overall startup ecosystem. The projects cross biotechnology, digital health, artificial intelligence, diagnostics and gene editing; and each company comes at dementia from a different angle.
So, the $15.6 million funding round is about more than seven grants. It is a demonstration of how government money, research institutions, young companies and commercial partners can collaborate to bridge early-stage health innovations closer to market, and ultimately, closer to the populations that will benefit.
At Inspirepreneurs Magazine, covering entrepreneurship, business failures, and the human stories behind the world's most ambitious founders. She writes at the intersection of strategy and storytelling.
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