Aurenar, which developed a non-invasive, disposable neuromodulation platform, on Tuesday announced a $5.7 million seed funding round to accelerate progress.
American Heart Association Ventures’ Go Red for Women Venture Fund and Solas BioVentures led the funding round, with participation from BJC Health and Kaleida Capital.
Aurenar’s V-Link platform provides transurethral vagal stimulation to modulate the body’s inflammatory response to conditions such as subarachnoid hemorrhage. It received breakthrough device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 30.
Dr. Eric Leuthardt, founder and CEO of Aurenar, told Fierce Healthcare that the idea to non-invasively use vagus nerve stimulation in critical care treatment came to him about 10 years ago.
“Later, a colleague died in the ICU from delayed vasospasm after a ruptured brain aneurysm,” Reuhardt said. “She was a young, healthy mother of two children. At that moment, it became clear that this was a problem that needed a better solution, and that VNS could achieve it.”
Reuhardt said his lab worked on developing the technology and that “rising neurosurgeon” Dr. Anna Huguenard organized the first pilot test.
“Together, we discovered early and compelling data that this is a fundamental approach to reducing toxic inflammation in critically ill patients,” said Reuhardt.
Regardless of the cause, the body’s reaction to injury can “increase the risk of complications and death,” Reuhardt said.
“This is a universal problem for critically ill patients,” says Reuhardt. “In the intensive care unit, it’s not just the diagnosis that guides you; everything that happens afterwards determines the patient’s outcome. Many of these adverse events can be attributed to increased levels of inflammation.”
Reuhardt, who launched Aurenar in 2024, said V-Link promotes “the brain’s natural ability to modulate systemic and central inflammation,” adding that the approach has been validated by multiple pilot clinical trials at St. Louis-based Washington University.
“Going forward, we will focus on various stroke-related indications,” he said. “However, this is a more general platform technology that can be extended far beyond neurological diseases.”
The funding will be used to evolve the technology and capabilities into a “critically important test-ready company,” Reuhardt said.
Go Red for Women Venture Fund senior managing director Tracy Warren said in a statement that the platform is “committed to providing a pathway to improved recovery for all patients, especially women, who experience the most complications after stroke.”
“The potential for use in other conditions that cause an inflammatory response in the body, which also particularly affects women, makes V-Link a scalable innovation that our fund was created to accelerate,” Warren said.
