adsilico is developing an end-to-end in-silico trials solution based on virtual ‘synthetic’ patient populations that will:

• Provide better and safer medical devices earlier to patients.
• Reduce costs and accelerate R&D timescales for medical device developers.
• Contribute to animal welfare by reducing animal experimentation.
• Reduce, refine, and partially replace costly and potentially harmful human trials.

Northern Gritstone, the investment business focused on science and technology-enabled businesses in the North of England, along with Parkwalk Advisors, have today announced a combined £3.5 million seed round investment into adsilico Limited (‘adsilico’), a spin-out from the University of Leeds with co-founders from the Universities of Leeds and Manchester.

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’ internationally renowned 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’s solution will allow medical device manufacturers to accelerate R&D, reduce the need for animal experimentation, and augment costly human trials.

Northern Gritstone’s investment of £2 million sits alongside co-investor Parkwalk Advisors investment of £1.5 million. The combined investment will be used to fund essential development in adsilico and build the team.

Professor Alejandro Frangi, Founder of adsilico, said: “Medical devices follow a lengthy evaluation with a tiny amount of scientific evidence currently derived from computer modelling and simulation. 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 spin-out take another step forward on its vision to bring safer and more efficient medical devices”.

Professor Nick Plant, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds, said: “This funding will help to redefine the development of medical devices, enhancing performance and safety with more certainty and speed, and most importantly, prior to human testing”.

“It is a further testament to Leeds’ pioneering approach and strength in driving innovation to accelerate the adoption of new health technologies, delivering improvements and impact directly to healthcare professionals and patients.”

ENDS

About Northern Gritstone

Northern Gritstone is a ground-breaking investment company dedicated to supporting science and technology-enabled businesses in the North of England, including spinouts from its founding university partners.

Launched in July 2021 by the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, its philosophy is Profit with Purpose, combining strong returns for investors with wider positive, societal and economic impact, including supporting Levelling Up and high-skilled job creation in the North of England.

Chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill, the company announced the final close of its initial fundraising at £312 million in October 2023. Dedicated to financing companies in some of the UK’s fastest-growing sectors, such as advanced materials, energy, health technology and cognitive computation, it has already made 18 investments in some of the UK’s most exciting future science and technology-enabled businesses.

For more information, please go to: https://northern-gritstone.com/

About adsilico

Founded in 2022, adsilico is a spin-out business from research at the Centre for Computational Imaging and Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine (CISTIB) at the University of Leeds. The company aims to transform medical product innovation and regulatory evidence generation using advanced computational and AI technologies. Its Co-Founders are Professor Alejandro Frangi, Sheena Macpherson, Nishant Ravikumar and Zeike Taylor.

About Professor Alejandro Frangi, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer. Frangi was the Diamond Jubilee Chair in Computational Medicine at the University of Leeds and the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. In July 2023, he became the Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine and Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute for Health Technology Research at the University of Manchester. Prof Frangi spent 5 years with the University of Leeds as Director of Research and Innovation at Leeds Institute for Data Analytics and the founding Scientific Director of the Centre for HealthTech Innovation. He directed the Centre for Computational Imaging and Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine (CISTIB), from where adsilico emerged thanks to generous funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering. He also holds an ERC Advanced Research Grant and leads the InSilicoUK Pro-Innovation Regulations Network (www.insilicouk.org).

About Sheena Macpherson, CEO and Co-Founder. Macpherson has previous experience working within both start-ups and enterprise companies AstraZeneca and Vodafone mHealth. Since February 2022, Macpherson has been Entrepreneur-In-Residence at CISTIB (Centre for Computational Imagining and Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine) at the University of Leeds.

About Dr Nishant Ravikumar, Co-Founder and Head of Virtual Populations. Ravikumar is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Leeds, where he focuses on scalable technologies for generating virtual populations of anatomy and physiology, which are central to ISTs. He and his team have won awards for cardiac image segmentation. Ravikumar co-led the AI programme at the Leeds Institute of Data Analytics.

About, Dr Zeike Taylor, Co-Founder and Head of Simulations. Taylor is currently Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds and was Deputy Director of CISTIB. He specialises in computational modelling & simulation and has around 20 years of experience in biomedical simulation applications. Taylor has been supported by numerous national and international funders, including through a recent fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

For more information, please go to: Home (adsilico.uk)

About Parkwalk Advisors

Parkwalk is the largest growth EIS fund manager, backing world-changing technologies emerging from the UK’s leading universities and research institutions. With £500m of assets under management, it has invested in over 160 companies across its Parkwalk Opportunities and Knowledge Intensive EIS Funds, as well as the award-winning enterprise and innovation funds Parkwalk manages for the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol and Imperial College.

Parkwalk invests in businesses creating solutions to real-world challenges, with IP-protected innovations, across a range of sectors including life sciences, AI, quantum computing, advanced materials, genomics, cleantech, future of mobility, medtech and big data.

For more information please go to: https://parkwalkadvisors.com/

About the University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries. We are renowned globally for the quality of our teaching and research. 

We are a values-driven university, and we harness our expertise in research and education to help shape a better future for humanity, working through collaboration to tackle inequalities, achieve societal impact and drive change.  

The University is a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, and plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. www.leeds.ac.uk