Neurocarrus

Neurocarrus is a pharmaceutical startup that’s developing a life-changing pain medication.

Its drug candidate — N-001 — provides relief from severe and chronic pain. But here’s the thing: because this drug can’t enter the brain, it can’t cause addiction. It provides pain relief equal to today’s prescription drugs without side effects on the muscles, balance, or brain.

Pain is one of the most prevalent health problems in the world. In the U.S. alone it affects fifty-six percent of adults, more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined.

So why aren’t there any safe, effective pain-relief drugs already on the market?

The answer is that pain has never been treated like a disease. Instead, it remains broadly defined as a significant symptom.

Furthermore, the recent opioid epidemic has led many pharmaceutical companies to shy away from developing new pain medications, due to concerns of liability and public criticism. Opioid overdoses kill more than four people every hour in the U.S. And in the UK, opioid prescriptions have nearly doubled over the past decade.

But Neurocarrus’ N-001 has been developed for treatment of severe pain without causing addiction or nasty side effects. Here’s how it works:

Pain is caused by damage to sensory neurons that lie outside the central-nervous system and brain. Therefore, N-001 was designed to target such neurons located only in the body’s peripheral regions. This strategy avoids addiction because it avoids the central-nervous system.

To target sensory neurons and treat pain, N-001 had to be multi-functional. This drug is targeted to sensory neurons, not motor neurons, and has no impact on muscles. It is only active once it goes inside sensory neurons.

Together, these two functions limit side effects and distinguish N-001 from all other pain drugs. Once inside the sensory neuron, the drug modifies the internal actin-based skeleton to reduce neural signaling and provide pain relief.

Simply put, Neurocarrus’ drug acts like a dimmer switch on neurons without blocking sensation. And because the drug is a very large protein, its size prevents it from diffusing inside the body and blocks entry into the brain. This is how the drug prevents addiction.

N-001 and its method of synthesis are protected by two U.S. patents. And these patents describe the invention and how to make the drug.

Since these patents were issued, Neurocarrus has developed new ways of making N-001, resulting in higher yields at lower costs.

Neurocarrus has received more than three million dollars in funding, including from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It’s also partnered with Stanford Medical School and the Veterans Administration in Palo Alto, California. Notably, Neurocarrus was accepted into the U.S. NIH Preclinical-Screening Platform for Pain in 2021.

Today, the company is in the early stages of its development process — specifically in the pre-clinical phase, which is completed prior to testing on humans.

Team Background

Paul Blum - Co-Founder & CEO

Paul has spent more than thirty years working in cell engineering and microbiology.

Throughout his career, he’s assisted several pharmaceutical companies with commercial
drug developments, specifically protein-related medications.

According to Paul, he was the person “brought in to fix drugs that were having problems late in their development.”

This experience will be very helpful for Neurocarrus, and we believe it increases its odds for success.

Prior to starting the company, Blum served as a professor at the University of Nebraska for nearly thirty years. He’s also been an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Paul earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis.

Derek Allen - Research Scientist

Prior to joining Neurocarrus in 2023, Derek spent six years as a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Nebraska. His focus was on biomedical research and protein engineering.

Before that, he was a research assistant at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and South Dakota State University.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from South Dakota State and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Nebraska.

Jianguo Cheng - Board Member

For eighteen years, Jianguo has worked as a Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Pain Medicine Fellowship Program. In addition, he was an Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Louisville.

He was formerly the Head of Neurophysiology and Neurochemistry Labs at Qingdao University Medical College.

Jianguo earned a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine from Qingdao University and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Guelph. He also completed a Pain Medicine Fellowship program through Harvard Medical School.

Co-Investors