We aim to improve the diagnosis, prediction, and treatment of neurological and neurodevelopmental differences by better understanding their genetic, biological, and developmental roots.
Relatix Bio is building a more precise, humane, and practically useful model for understanding neurodiversity and chronic mental health variation. We want to help people be better understood, and help researchers, clinicians, and health innovators work with more specific, better-defined cohorts.
Our Hypothesis
Many neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions appear to arise from overlapping biological and developmental pathways, including:
- Shared genetic variants
- Differences in brain development
- Impaired social-emotional circuitry (hormones, brain signalling)
- Different expressions of related underlying mechanisms
Why do we believe genetics and biology matter so much here?
- Strong inherited component
- Present in early childhood
- Often persistent despite standard treatment approaches
- Proven physiological and genetic differences
- Imprecise and overlapping diagnoses, which largely fail to take biology into account
Historically, many forms of neurological difference and mental distress have been interpreted through a moralistic lens. Traits or behaviours rooted in biology or development have too often been treated as character flaws rather than signals of real underlying genetic and epigenetic variation. That has led to stigma and exclusion. The diagnosis and support often poorly matching what people actually need. We now know from extensive genetic, neurological, and clinical research that many forms of neurodivergence and chronic mental health variation have strong biological and developmental components. Better understanding should lead to better diagnosis, better support, and more realistic expectations about what kinds of intervention are likely to help.
The brain is malleable
Recent studies show that the brain is plastic, and can be made even more malleable through chemical and physical interventions. It means that there is reason to feel a lot of hope that even conditions someone is born with can be modified and treated.
Our approach is radically different!
We want people living with neurodiversity, chronic mental health conditions, or neurodevelopmental differences to be understood in a more fine-grained and useful way. We also want to support a new generation of precision medicine; including therapeutic approaches, diagnostics, clinical trials, and health technologies by helping partners work with cohorts that are better defined, better understood, and better served.
