Montara Therapeutics receives $1M MJFF grant for Parkinson's mTOR program

What's the deal? San Francisco-based Montara Therapeutics has received a research grant of approximately $1 million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's ResearchDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (MJFF). The funding will support development of Montara's BrainOnly™ platform to target mTOR, a protein that suppresses the brain's natural ability to clear toxic build-up linked to Parkinson's disease.

This is Montara's second MJFF grant — the foundation awarded it funding in May 2025 to develop a brain-selective LRRK2 inhibitor. The new grant falls under MJFF's Therapeutics Pipeline Program, which backs preclinical and clinical efforts to accelerate new Parkinson's therapies.

Why now? Drugs that inhibit mTOR, including rapamycin and related compounds, have shown promise in clearing α-synuclein — the toxic protein that clumps together and damages brain cells in Parkinson's patients — in lab models. But mTOR plays essential roles throughout the body, and systemic inhibition causes serious side effects like immune suppression and metabolic disruption.

Montara is already advancing a related programme toward the clinic: its peripheral blocker MT1110, paired with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus, to treat tuberous sclerosis complex-related epilepsy. The Parkinson's grant builds directly on that foundation, applying the same brain-selective approach to a new indication.

What could go wrong? The science is still early-stage. Montara will use the funding to test several mTOR inhibitors combined with its peripheral blocker in cell-based systems and animal models — a long way from human trials. Translating lab results into safe, effective therapies for neurological diseases has historically proved difficult, and there's no guarantee that restricting drug activity to the brain will fully eliminate systemic risks.

The signal: MJFF's repeat backing of Montara — a breakout-stage company with no disclosed equity rounds — underscores the growing role of non-profit and government funders as early validators for preclinical biotech, effectively de-risking programmes before venture capital steps in. The bet is that organ-selective drug delivery can unlock entire therapeutic classes, such as mTOR inhibitors, that systemic side effects have kept out of neurology, a thesis with implications well beyond Parkinson's.

Read more: Business Insider