The Week of

Before we get to today’s update, we wanted to share with you a recent profile of Gilgamesh in a Forbes.

Entitled: How Gilgamesh Turned On Big Pharma’s Billion-Dollar Appetite For Psychedelic Drugs, the article offers a a glimpse into the world of Gilgamesh, and of course, discusses the $1.2 billion deal the company closed with AbbVie last year.

Since Gilgamesh has been an extremely successful part of JLS Fund, we figured you might want to give it a read. After all, while you knew about Gilgamesh long before the billion-dollar deal with AbbVie, the rest of the world is only now starting to see what we saw when we first added Gilgamesh to the JLS portfolio. Check it out: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2026/09/04/how-gilgamesh-turned-on-big-pharmas-billion-dollar-appetite-for-psychedelic-drugs/

Definium Therapeutics received FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation for DT120, an experimental treatment for major depression that's essentially a pharmaceutical formulation of LSD.

In a Phase 3 trial, patients received just one 100-microgram dose. Six weeks later, those patients showed significantly greater improvement in depression symptoms than those receiving a placebo, and the benefit was still evident at 12 weeks.

The idea is very different from conventional antidepressants, which generally require patients to take medication every day. Definium is testing whether a single psychedelic treatment could provide meaningful relief lasting for months. DT120 is designed as a tablet that dissolves quickly in the mouth and acts on serotonin receptors in the brain. Here’s more: https://substack.com/home/post/p-214741073

BrainChild Bio announced that it raised $116 million to develop CAR-T treatments for deadly brain cancers in children. The main focus is BCB-276, an experimental therapy for DIPG, an aggressive brain tumor that affects about 300 U.S. children each year and is considered uniformly fatal. Right now, treatment is largely limited to radiation intended to temporarily control the disease.

BCB-276 works by taking a patient's own immune cells, engineering them to recognize a protein found on DIPG tumor cells, and then delivering those cells directly into the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. That approach is designed to help the engineered immune cells reach a tumor that is notoriously difficult to treat.

The therapy has already entered a pivotal Phase 2 trial with results expected in 2028. If successful, the study could potentially support an application for FDA approval. Check it out: https://substack.com/home/post/p-214738572

Apple acquired Sonera, a California startup developing sensors that can measure signals produced by the brain and muscles without implants or even direct skin contact. Instead of measuring electrical activity, Sonera's technology detects the tiny magnetic fields produced by the body, which could eventually make brain and muscle monitoring practical in consumer wearables.

Apple hasn't said what it plans to do with the technology, but potential uses include monitoring neuromuscular conditions, controlling prosthetic limbs, tracking physical performance, and developing new accessibility features. Longer term, it could potentially help people interact with devices using subtle muscle movements or neural signals.

Essentially, Apple just bought technology aimed at making brain and muscle activity as easy for a wearable device to measure as other biological signals, potentially opening the door to an entirely new generation of health and accessibility features. Here’s more: https://jlsfund.substack.com/p/apple-just-bought-a-company-that

Did you know MDMA can now be prescribed to certain PTSD patients in New Zealand?

Two specially approved psychiatrists can now prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to adults whose post-traumatic stress disorder hasn't responded adequately to conventional treatments. Patients don't simply receive a prescription and take MDMA at home, though. The drug is administered in a controlled clinical setting alongside psychotherapy, under the supervision of an authorized psychiatrist. Here’s more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/04/new-zealand-approves-mdma-to-treat-severe-ptsd