Axial Biotherapeutics is the latest microbiome firm to emerge. Private and venture capital investors, including Longwood Fund and Domain Associates, have put an initial $19 million into the California start-up.Axial is based on the work of California Institute of Technology professor Sarkis Mazmanian. In mouse models, his lab has shown a connection between neurological disorders and interventions in the gut microbiome. Axial intends to expand on these discoveries to find pathways and mechanisms amenable to biotherapeutic intervention. Initial disease targets include autism and Parkinson’s disease.Technology that Axial has licensed from Caltech includes Mazmanian’s work involving Bacteroides fragiles. Raising the level of these gut bacteria can reduce autism-like behavior in engineered mice.