The Week of

Cellares Corporation announced that it raised $257 million in a Series D financing round, bringing the company’s total funding to approximately $612 million. The capital will be used to expand Cellares’ network of fully automated “Smart Factory” facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and to scale commercial-grade cell therapy manufacturing slated to begin in 2027. 

At the core of Cellares’ platform is its Cell Shuttle™ technology, a fully integrated, end-to-end automated system that compresses complex cell therapy workflows into a closed, scalable manufacturing process. While originally developed for high-profile CAR-T oncology programs, the Cell Shuttle’s flexibility and high-dose capacity are well suited to support an expanding wave of advanced cell therapies, including those aimed at neurological and central nervous system (CNS) conditions, where production complexity and dosing demands often exceed traditional manufacturing capabilities. Check it out: https://www.cellares.com/news/cellares-raises-257-million-series-d-led-by-blackrock-and-eclipse-to-industrialize-global-cell-therapy-manufacturing-with-breakthrough-automation/

Solvonis Therapeutics announced the expansion of its investigational compound SVN-015 into depression after positive preclinical data showed antidepressant-like effects in rodent models that were comparable to the SSRI fluoxetine.

SVN-015 is a novel serotonin-dopamine reuptake inhibitor (SDRI) designed to engage mood, motivation, and reward pathways, and the results support potential use in patients who respond inadequately to existing SSRIs, particularly for symptoms such as anhedonia and reduced motivation.

In addition to this depression expansion, SVN-015 has also been independently selected for evaluation under the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Discovery Program for stimulant use disorders, providing further validation of its pharmacological profile across central nervous system indications. Here’s more: https://solvonis.com/news/expansion-of-svn-015-into-depression-following-positive-preclinical-data

A $2 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation was awarded to Boston University to study MedRhythms’ Movive device, an FDA-recognized, music-based rhythmic auditory stimulation system designed to improve gait in people with Parkinson’s disease. 

Movive uses real-time gait data from shoe-worn sensors to deliver adaptive rhythmic cues that engage motor and auditory neural circuits, helping correct the mistimed movement signals that often underlie Parkinson’s gait impairment.

The study also incorporates mobile functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to observe brain activity during therapy, turning Movive into a quantified, closed-loop intervention rather than a simple tracking tool. Here’s more: https://substack.com/home/post/p-186009615

Did You Know Bionic Hands Can Now Anticipate Your Grip?

Researchers at the University of Utah have developed an AI-enhanced bionic hand that restores more natural and intuitive grasping ability for amputees by integrating advanced proximity and pressure sensors with an artificial neural network. 

In this system, each finger independently “sees” nearby objects and automatically moves into the correct position for a stable grip, substantially reducing the cognitive effort amputees normally expend to control each finger manually. Check it out: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65965-9