Israeli entrepreneur and investor Shmulik Bezalel has traveled the world and donated funds for research to find a treatment for his son Itay who has low-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Itay is one of 254 million children and adults worldwide struggling with neuropsychiatric disorders without a suitable treatment.

Recognizing the limited therapeutic options for neuropsychiatric disorders, Bezalel teamed up with serial entrepreneur Boaz Goldman and neuroscientist Dr. Nisim Perets, and in 2021 founded an Israeli biotech startup with the vision to generate a simulation of the brain and test the efficacy of drugs.

That startup, Itay & Beyond — named after Bezalel’s child Itay — is now developing a drug discovery and testing platform for psychiatric and neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy, and schizophrenia.

“The vision was to establish a system that will test how a specific drug would influence Itay’s ability to learn, improve memory, or be more social,” Perets told The Times of Israel. “The goal is to create a system to predict the efficacy of specific drugs on the functioning of cognitive and behavioral aspects.”

Keep reading at timesofisrael.com.

Itay & Beyond CEO and Co-founder Nisim Perets is a Technion alumnus.