adsilico, a spinout from the University of Leeds, has raised £3.5 million to improve medical trials and devices.
The startup, which has co-founders from the Universities of Leeds and Manchester, has been backed by Northern Gritstone to the tune of £2m with a further £1.5m from Parkwalk Advisors.
In-silico trials (ISTs) use modelling and simulation to produce scientific evidence of device performance and safety before testing in human clinical trials.
Based on research funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering at the University of Leeds’s Schools of Medicine and Computing, adsilico has developed a ground-breaking IST technique that combines multiple data sources and uses generative AI across heterogeneous data sources to create synthetic populations on a scale ideal for clinical trials.
adsilico says its solution will allow medical device manufacturers to accelerate R&D, reduce the need for animal experimentation and augment costly human trials.
“Medical devices follow a lengthy evaluation with a tiny amount of scientific evidence currently derived from computer modelling and simulation,” said founder Professor Alejandro Frangi.
“The cost is ever-increasing, delaying lifesaving benefits to patients. Northern Gritstone’s and Parkwalk’s investment and support will enable adsilico to offer a scalable solution to the medical device market to produce evidence on an unprecedented scale.”
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, said: “Computational modelling has the potential to revolutionise the MedTech industry and reduce the risks to humans.
“Northern Gritstone is delighted to support adsilico’s team, who once again demonstrate that great science and technology-enabled businesses are being created in the North of England.”
Moray Wright, CEO of Parkwalk Advisors, said: “We are proud to be backing adsilico through this seed funding round. adsilico’s pioneering approach to in-silico trials has potential to significantly accelerate the pace of innovation in medical device development.
“It’s fantastic to see this university spinout take another step forward on its vision to bring safer and more efficient medical devices.”