Envisioning an end to neurodegenerative diseases

About Us

Eikonizo (ee-kƏ-NEE’-zo) verb [Greek]

to envision, visualize, or imagine.

The name captures our strategy to use neuroimaging earlier in the drug discovery process to de-risk therapeutic approaches to neurodegeneration.

Eikonizo is developing life-changing therapies by creating brain-penetrant small molecules and deploying in vivo target engagement techniques to accelerate the identification of therapeutics. Our first program is focused on a disease-modifying therapeutic for neurodegenerative diseases.

Our Lead Program

Eikonizo is developing brain-penetrant, small molecule, selective histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitors as disease-modifying therapeutics for neurodegenerative disease, including Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Therapeutic Development

Our brain-penetrant small molecules inhibit HDAC6, an enzyme that modifies key proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology. Inhibiting HDAC6 prevents pathological tau phosphorylation and downstream aggregation (tangles) in AD, as well as stabilizes microtubules to restore deficient axonal transport in ALS – resulting in slowing or stopping disease progression. For more information about our mechanistic rationale, click here. For more information about supporting literature, click here.

Companion HDAC6 PET Tool for Target Engagement

We establish in vivo target engagement early, both pre-clinically and clinically, by utilizing Eikonizo’s proprietary HDAC6 positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tool. We have validated our HDAC6 PET tool for human use. Our approach de-risks and hastens clinical development by supporting direct visualization and quantitation of target engagement in the brain of living patients.

Our Publications

July 8, 2020

Clinical validation of the novel HDAC6 radiotracer [18F]EKZ-001 in the human brain

PMID: 32638097

April 1st, 2020

Translation of HDAC6 PET Imaging Using [18F]EKZ-001–cGMP Production and Measurement of HDAC6 Target Occupancy in Nonhuman Primates PMID: 32159328

Our Pipeline

While our first program on selective HDAC6 inhibitors focuses on the neurodegenerative diseases AD and ALS, exciting emerging biology around HDAC6 suggests an application to other diseases, particularly peripheral neuropathies, depression, and cardiac diseases. We are also leveraging our expertise to target other post-translational modification (PTM) enzymes.