California-based Rune Labs, a precision neurology software and data platform company, is partnering with BlueRock Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company and subsidiary of Bayer AG, to aid in studying Parkinson's disease.

BlueRock will utilize Rune Labs' clinical development platform, StriveStudy, for clinical trial enrollment, real-world evidence data generation and monitoring patient compliance in a study. 

The biopharma company will jointly use Rune Labs’ Apple Watch-enabled data-collection and remote patient monitoring tool, dubbed StrivePD, which uses Apple's Movement Disorder API to track tremors and dyskinesia, or uncontrolled and involuntary body movement. The app, which received FDA 510(k) clearance last year, also allows patients to log their medications, side effects and other symptoms. 

Rune Labs' offerings will allow researchers to track Parkinson's disease activity and study the effects of disease-modifying therapeutics to treat movement disorders.

"Together, BlueRock and Rune Labs will remotely collect longitudinal and objective data directly from patients to create a comprehensive image of Parkinson’s symptoms. By establishing a baseline symptom dataset, we will be able to fully capture the benefits of novel advanced therapies, increasing the efficiency of clinical trials in the future," Brian Pepin, Rune Labs CEO, said in a statement.    

THE LARGER TREND

In 2021, Rune Labs scooped up $22.8 million in Series A funding, building off a $5 million seed from 2020. 

The brain-data company also announced a collaboration with Medtronic to understand the effects of neurostimulation by using Rune's software to capture and analyze data from Medtronic's neurostimulator and BrainSense technology.

In 2022, the San Francisco-based company expanded into Europe, adding a team of designers based in Portugal that would focus on broadening the features of its StrivePD offering.

One month later, Rune announced its StrivePD app received FDA 510(k) clearance to monitor Parkinson's disease patients' symptoms through the Apple Watch.

In July, the brain data company announced a partnership with Coastal Research Institute in which it would aid in the study of multiple sclerosis by helping identify neurophysiological biomarkers of the disease to evaluate disease progression.