Opsin Biotherapeutics wins $2.35 million NIH grant for optogenetic pain therapy

Opsin Biotherapeutics has landed a two-year, $2.35 million NIH Phase II SBIR grant to advance a non-viral optogenetic therapy for chronic pain. The Bedford, Texas company says the award will support IND-enabling development of a cell-selective alternative to spinal cord stimulation.

Why it matters: - Chronic pain patients often rely on electrical spinal cord stimulation, which can cause side effects and lacks cell-level precision. - Opsin Biotherapeutics is advancing a different approach that aims to control pain by targeting specific neurons rather than applying an electrical field. - The NIH grant gives the company non-dilutive funding to push the program toward clinical development.

What happened: - Opsin Biotherapeutics received a two-year, $2.35 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. - The grant is titled “Optogenetic Neuromodulation for Chronic Pain.” - The award was announced Oct. 1, 2026, from Bedford, Texas. - The funding will support continued development of a therapy designed to replace traditional electrical spinal cord stimulation.

The details: - Opsin's platform uses optogenetic neuromodulation to introduce specific DNA into targeted pain-blocking neurons. - The targeted cells are then activated with low-power red light to modulate pain signals. - The company says cell selectivity comes from which neurons express the opsin, not from the shape of an electrical field. - The platform delivers its genetic payload without a viral vector. - The delivery method combines functionalized gold nanorods with low-powered near-infrared light. - The non-viral approach is intended to avoid immunogenicity, pre-existing-antibody exclusion criteria and redosing constraints associated with AAV-based therapies. - The company says the approach preserves the option of repeat administration. - The award supports IND-enabling development. - The grant follows completion of Phase I SBIR milestones that showed the promise of light-based gene therapy for chronic pain.

Between the lines: - The NIH award signals external validation for a therapy that tries to combine gene therapy with device-style activation. - Opsin is positioning the program as a step beyond incremental improvements to electrical stimulation. - The non-viral delivery angle could matter because it may reduce some of the development limits that affect viral gene therapies. - CEO Robert Benkowski said the award reflects rigorous external review of both the science and the development plan. - Benkowski said the company wants to bring a “fundamentally different control mechanism” to pain treatment.

What's next: - Opsin Biotherapeutics will use the Phase II award to advance the program toward the clinic. - The company will continue IND-enabling work for the chronic pain therapy. - Opsin says the broader goal is to develop highly targeted, device-activated biologics for chronic and severe pain conditions. - The company was formed as a joint venture between Samarendra Mohanty, PhD, of Nanoscope Technologies, and Robert Benkowski, MBA, of DesignPlex Biomedical. - The founders connected at a North Texas medical technology event and built the company around combining gene therapy research with medical device engineering.

The bottom line: - Opsin Biotherapeutics now has federal funding to test whether optogenetics can become a more precise alternative to electrical neuromodulation for chronic pain.