SereNeuro Therapeutics, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company developing non-opioid therapies for pain, has announced today, 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. 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.”
The Origin of SN101
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 Dong, co-founder and scientific advisor.
How SN101 Works
SN101 cells are fully mature, non-dividing sensory neurons that do not integrate with the patient’s nervous system, a profile the company says lowers tumorigenicity risk relative to other stem cell-based approaches. Once injected into the joint, the cells act as a reservoir that binds and clears pain and inflammatory factors. They also secrete wound-healing factors that, according to SereNeuro, help halt cartilage degeneration, remodel subchondral bone, limit nerve growth into inflamed tissue, and promote an anti-inflammatory immune response. The company has described this dual mechanism in a bioRxiv preprint, and in preclinical studies a single injection provided pain relief lasting beyond six months in mice.
A Second Program for Neuropathic Pain
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 Wang, co-founder and scientific advisor.
In September 2026, after the financing closed, SereNeuro received its first NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award. The award supports SN102 through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative (NIH HEAL Initiative), an NIH-wide effort to speed scientific solutions to the opioid crisis, including non-addictive treatments for pain. SN102 is supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research under Award Number R43DE035747.
Building Blocks in the BioHealth Capital Region
SereNeuro is building from two prominent Maryland innovation hubs, with its home base at FastForward 1812 in Baltimore and a second site at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation Innovation Labs. With HJF serving as an observer on their board, the footprint reflects the company’s dual-use potential. Musculoskeletal injury is the second leading reason service members become unfit for duty, and service members develop post-traumatic osteoarthritis earlier, often in their 40s, and at twice the prevalence of civilians, Saragnese told BioBuzz. That makes non-opioid joint pain treatment relevant to military readiness as well as civilian care.
SereNeuro will carry Maryland’s growing cell and gene therapy presence to a national audience. The Alliance for Regenertive Medicine selected the company to present an Innovation Spotlight at the 2026 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mesa, taking place on October 5, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. MST (5:30 p.m. EDT) in the Frank Lloyd Wright Ballroom G at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix.
About SereNeuro Therapeutics
SereNeuro Therapeutics is a preclinical biotechnology company developing non-opioid therapies for chronic pain. Its programs target chronic osteoarthritis joint pain (SN101) and neuropathic pain (SN102). The company’s lead candidate, SN101, is a first-in-class induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived therapy that uses mature iPSC-derived peripheral pain-sensing neurons, known as nociceptors. SN101 is being developed to treat chronic osteoarthritis joint pain, an approach the company says challenges the traditional logic of pain management.
