Weekly TechBio News
MetaphysicalCells: A newsletter about Science, Technology and AI Drug Discovery
Welcome back to another free edition of MetaphysicalCells 🪐🛸
Below is a synthesis of key trends and insights from the latest TechBio updates:
💈 Ingenix BV
The Polish biotech startup Ingenix just raised €9M Seed funding for its development of a pioneering model for simulating clinical trials (Ingenix raises €9M Seed for clinical drug trial simulations).
Ingenix is building a foundation model for clinical trials, trained on genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, imaging, and phenotypic data. Basically Ingenix is a proprietary multimodal and multiscale generative AI co-pilot for clinical development, created to enable accurate simulation of clinical trials on digital twins. In particular, Ingenix’s AI foundation model is designed to understand multiple scales, ranging from molecular to cellular and populational levels. Their solution integrates biological and medical knowledge expressed via all applicable modalities, including through text, graphics, bioimaging, 3D structures, sequences, and time series, using the chain-of-thought prompting approach.
Ingenix was co-founded by the founders of Applica, an AI-based start-up specializing in proprietary multimodal LLMs, acquired by Snowflake in 2022.
🔹13 AI healthcare companies to watch in 2025🔹
1. 🔹Arcadia: is a health data platform that uses AI and ML to analyze patient records.
2. 🔹Amazon Web Services: the AWS HealthLake data management platform offers AI-assisted healthcare data analytics capabilities, while AWS HealthScribe uses GenAI to generate clinical notes.
3. 🔹Cleerly: is a startup specializing in heart disease treatments.
4. 🔹Databricks: offers data analytics to help healthcare providers analyze patient data stored on the Databricks platform.
5. 🔹Doximity: is a platform designed to help professionals in the medical field collaborate and share research.
6. 🔹EClinicalWorks: lets healthcare providers manage patient information and clinical data.
7. 🔹Enlitic: specializes in using AI to standardize medical imaging data.
8. 🔹Google: its Google Cloud Healthcare Data Engine, which businesses can use to analyze healthcare data, includes AI models that developers can use to create custom applications.
9. 🔹Health Catalyst: offers Healthcare.AI, a suite of features that support descriptive and predictive analytics, such as analyzing readmission risk and assessing the outcome of healthcare programs.
10. 🔹Hippocratic AI: specializes in developing AI-powered chatbots for the healthcare industry.
11. 🔹Humana: a major health insurance company, uses AI to assess and process claims data using predictive and descriptive analytics models.
12. 🔹IBM: it offers several IT and cloud services that deliver AI capabilities.
13. 🔹Microsoft: provides several AI offerings for the healthcare industry, primarily through its Azure public cloud platform.
💈 FDA will prioritize NAMs
On April 10, 2025, the FDA announced moving away from requiring animal models for investigational new drug (IND) applications for new monoclonal antibodies and some other drug candidates, while animal testing will be reduced, refined or potentially replaced by a suite of new approach methodologies (NAMs), including computational models, and human cell lines and organoids (FDA plans to end animal testing requirements for monoclonal antibody drugs). The New Approach Methods (NAMs), include
📍AI-driven Toxicity Models
By way of illustration, some ADMET prediction tools are the following:
🔹ProTox 3.0 is a webserver for the prediction of toxicity of chemicals utilizing molecular similarity and ML models,
🔹VenomPred 2.0 is a ML based platform for molecular toxicity prediction, and
🔹ToxTree is a ML based model to predict hERG and Nav1.5 cardiotoxicity of a molecular compound at the outset of drug development process (Source: ➡️ ADMET predictions: different approaches, including ML models, for the prediction of specific ADMET endpoints and ➡️ Weekly TechBio News: Drug Screening).
🔹Startups and Novel Tools for AI-Guided Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicity (ADMET) Prediction are the following:
Startups 🗂️: Aganitha AI, Deep Mirror, DevsHealth, DeepCure, SimulationPlus, HeartBeatBio, Elix, Genesis Therapeutics, Standigm, Quris, Iktos, GreenStone Biosciences and many more; and
Tools 🗂️: DeepDelta, SAFIRE, ADMET-AI and many more (Source: ➡️ Weekly TechBio News: ADMET Prediction).
📍Lab-Grown Human Organoids
The emerging field, known as “organoid intelligence” (OI), uses lab-grown brain organoids—clusters of cells that replicate certain features of the human brain—to explore how they might learn, store information, and even perform computational tasks with the help of AI (Kagan et al. 2022). As of illustration, some organoid driven solutions are:
🔹a:head bio AG just secured additional private funding to advance its human brain tissue platform. Based at the Vienna Biocenter, a:head bio is growing human brain organoids designed to carry out high-throughput screening of drugs targeting the central nervous system (CNS). The company combines cell reprogramming, gene editing, digital biology and 3D culture technology, to create these organoids, which is different from traditional approaches such as using molecular targets and animal models. Then they apply deep AI-driven analysis to uncover complex disease signatures and push disease model sophistication a:head to create unrivaled opportunities in CNS drug discovery.
🔹Parallel Bio is using immune organoids and AI to design drugs. Not only they can rapidly discover new drugs that they know will work in patients from the start, but they know how well a drug performs across an entire population, something not currently possible with existing technology. On May 17, 2024, Parallel Bio launched the “Clinical Trial in a Dish” to predict drug efficacy, an innovative approach utilizing human immune organoids and robotics to simulate the biological diversity of a population, potentially offering more accurate predictions of a drug’s safety and efficacy.
🔹Molecular Devices is developing AI and automated solutions for organoids, enabling more accurate disease modeling and drug testing (Growing Interest in Organoids: AI & Automated Solutions by Molecular Devices). Molecular Devices, is one of the leading providers of high-performance bioanalytical measurement solutions for life science research, pharmaceutical and biotherapeutic development.
Molecular Devices has a collaboration with 🔹HeartBeatBio (HeartBeat.bio AG) in Austria that is developing a high-throughput human cardiac 🫀 organoids (Cardioids) screening platform for cardiac drug discovery, that enables modeling of diseases such as drug-induced and genetic cardiomyopathies as well as myocardial infarction and fibrosis (cardiotoxicity). In particular, their predictive high throughput screening platform for cardiotoxicity testing and cardiac drug discovery combines the innovative hardware solutions of their technology partner Molecular Devices (with a 3D cell culture and image analysis lab), for complex 3D heart tissue models, relevant functional assays and high-content read-outs as well as AI-based big data analysis software.
In January 2025, it was announced the recent signing of a definitive agreement to acquire 🔹HUB Organoids B.V. by Merck KGaA, expanding Merck Life Science diverse portfolio and enhancing HUB´s current capabilities and outreach. HUB is an internationally recognized pioneer in organoid development, and has a service offering ranging from new model generation to assay development and high-throughput screening. HUB’s technology enables drug developers to identify and validate potential clinical candidates in a patient-relevant in vitro system, closing the gap between the lab and clinical trials.
🔹Curi Bio is integrating human iPSC-derived cells, tissue-specific biosystems, and AI-enabled data analytics to accelerate the discovery of new therapeutics. Through an integrated platform featuring advanced 3D tissue models of disease, biosystems enabling clinically relevant functional analyses, and AI/ML-enabled insights, Curi Bio merges functional and analytical assessments for drug safety, efficacy, and potency. In December 2024, Curi Bio Unlocked Advanced Cardiac Insights with Novoheart Integration.
📍Organ-On-Chip Systems
An organ-on-a-chip (OOC) is a multi-channel 3D microfluidic cell culture, integrated circuit (chip) that simulates the activities, mechanics and physiological response of an entire organ or an organ system. It constitutes the subject matter of significant biomedical engineering research, more precisely in bio-MEMS. When it comes to organ-on-chip systems we have companies like
🔺Finnadvance in Finland is offering AKITA®, a Biomimetic Organ-On-Chip Platform. Finnadvance manufactures multi-channel 3D microfluidic organ-on-a-chip that simulate the activities, mechanics and physiological response of entire organs and organ systems. The technology allows more human-like pre-clinical drug testing, fast repurposing of old drugs and in the long term development of personalized therapies and medicines.
🔺Quris (2020) in Israel has an AI Chip-on-Chip platform, Quris BioAI, that allows automated testing of thousands of drugs on miniaturized Patients-on-a-Chip, while next-generation nano-sensors allow for continuous monitoring of the responses from each miniaturized organ to these drugs. Then, their ML classification algorithm is trained with the data continuously generated in this high-throughput system. On October 29, 2024, Quris announced the successful asset acquisition of Nortis, recently known as Numa Biosciences, Inc (Quris-AI Acquired Nortis). Quris will integrate Nortis's pioneering Kidney-on-Chip technology, already vetted by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with its Bio-AI platform.
🔺Okomera (France) offers an automated 3D organoid screening technology and integrates standard assays on chip (eg. CRISPR, T-cell, cytotoxicity) to accelerate drug discovery from target to validation, and to advance preclinical predictivity. Their solution is Multiplexing (+100 conditions / batch), Miniaturization (Only 5,000 cells / chip), Quick (~1 week) and Automated (No expertise needed). Their patented tech was developed after 10 years of research at Pasteur Institute and Ecole Polytechnique, and today provides Multiplexing, Co-culture and High-throughput screening of drug candidates on miniaturized Patient Derived Organoids (PDOs) (End-to-End Automated Organoid Screening Platform: Application in Breast Cancer Drug Screening).
🔺Vivodyne (US, 2020) enables human testing before clinical trials with AI‑scale testing on lab-grown human organs and organs on chips. In particular, each of their proprietary Data Engine robotic machines tests on 10,000+ independent human tissues at a time. Then their AI platform is powered by an active learning system that can identify and produce the most useful human training data on-demand to refine its accuracy. By integrating data from 3D phenomics, single-cell sequencing and proteomics Vivodyne deeply understands and maps human complexity.
Other Innovative Organ-on-a-Chip Companies are: 🔺Emulate Bio, 🔺InSphero, 🔺Elveflow, 🔺Mimetas, 🔺MesoBiotech, 🔺Chiron, 🔺AxoSim (AxoSim has acquired the microBrain drug discovery technology platform from StemoniX, a subsidiary of Vyant Bio, to develop drugs for neurological disorders), 🔺Valo Health (AI-driven), 🔺Cherry Biotech, 🔺4Dcell, 🔺Nortis and many more: ➡️ Pioneering Biomedical Engineering: The Top 20 Innovative Organ-on-a-Chip Companies in 2025.
🔺Cellbox Labs is focusing on microbiome and gut on chip that allows to develop drugs more effective and study biological processes (Cellbox Labs kicks off project developing a first-in-class vascularized Gut-Brain-Axis-on-chip platform for accelerating research and drug discovery (GBA-Connect)).
🔺Cortical Labs (actual neurons, living on a silicon chip) based in Melbourne, Australia is building a new generation of biological computers. In 2021, they grew human neurons on a chip, and they taught them how to play Pong. The neurons were linked to a computer and gradually learned to sense the position of the game’s electronic ball and control a virtual paddle. They offer the world’s first code deployable biological computer, the CL1; and a biological cloud computing platform to build breakthrough technology, without the need for a specialized lab, the Cortical Cloud.
So far FDA’s decision had the following consequences:
➡️ Simulations Plus Supports New FDA Roadmap for Reducing Animal Testing in Preclinical Safety Studies
➡️ AI Healthcare, Oncocross Getting Attention with Phased-Out Animal Testing
➡️ Emulate Applauds FDA’s Roadmap to Reduce Animal Testing and Embrace Organ-Chip Technologies
➡️ Efferent Labs Applauds FDA’s Shift Away from Animal Testing
➡️ Schrödinger’s Statement Regarding FDA Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs
➡️ Physicians Committee Applauds FDA Commissioner Makary’s Leadership on Phasing Out Animal Testing in Favor of Human-Relevant Methods
➡️ CollPlant's Collink.3D® BioInks and Technologies Offer a Relevant and Timely Solution to FDA's Plan to Reduce Animal Testing in Preclinical Safety Studies
➡️ Charles River Labs stock tumbles as FDA shifts from animal testing
➡️ Inotiv and Charles River stock tumble as FDA moves away from animal testing
💈 Valted Seq Inc
On April 07, 2025, Valted Seq announced the launch of a novel AI-powered genomics tool, Single Cell AI Discovery Engine (SCADE), designed to revolutionize how researchers and healthcare professionals interpret vast amounts of genetic data (Valted Seq Launches Revolutionary AI-Powered Genomics Tool to Accelerate Breakthroughs in Healthcare and Life Sciences). By leveraging advanced ML algorithms, SCADE promises to drastically improve the speed and accuracy of insights derived from genomic sequences paving the way for faster biomarker and drug discovery, personalized medicine, and more effective treatments for cellular diseases.
Valted Seq is a discovery stage biopharmaceutical company spearheaded by world-renowned scientists Dr. Ted Dawson and Dr. Valina Dawson of Johns Hopkins University. The company was founded on the belief that a deeper understanding of neurodegenerative pathways is essential to develop precision therapeutics and identify novel biomarkers for some of the most challenging neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Valted Seq is part of the D&D Pharmatech/Neuraly family of companies, which works hand in hand with leading medical research institutions to advance groundbreaking healthcare innovations.
Home of the world’s largest repository of single-cell sequencing data for neurodegenerative diseases, Valted’s HiF-Seq™ platform enables for high efficiency single cell sequencing and is particularly well-suited for frozen tissue sections from post-mortem brain tissue which have been challenging for conventional single cell sequencing technologies. In parallel, they are developing diagnostic assays for known targets in recognized neurodegenerative pathways, as well as novel targets that have to date been challenging to detect and quantitate as biomarkers.
💈 More News 💈
Biostate AI, ACP to develop AI models to predict MS progression
Elix and PRISM BioLab Join Forces to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Discovery for Challenging Protein-Protein Interaction Targets
Cellino Announces Partnership with Karis Bio to Develop First Nebula™-Powered Autologous iPSC Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease
Exclusive: Andreessen Horowitz seeks to raise $20 billion megafund amid global interest in US AI startups
Illumina and Tempus partner to drive the future of precision medicine through genomic AI innovation
Sanofi licenses immune disease drugs from startup Earendil
Seattle startup Potato lands $4.5M to automate science experiments using AI assistants and robots
GenomOncology Announces BioMCP: Open Source Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Biomedical AI Assistants and Agents
Belay Diagnostics Partners with GenomOncology to Support High-Performance Liquid Biopsy Test for Central Nervous System Cancer Detection
GenomOncology Partners with Chronetyx Laboratories to Accelerate Cancer Care Through Comprehensive Genomic Profiling
GenomOncology and Pillar Biosciences Announce Co-Marketing Partnership to Advance Rapid Precision Oncology Solutions
💈 Fabric Genomics Inc
GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS), a leader in delivering improved health outcomes through genomic insights, announced (April 16, 2025) its plans to acquire Fabric Genomics, a pioneer in AI-powered genomic interpretation. The transaction enables GeneDx’s leadership in the next phase of genomic medicine: decentralized testing with centralized intelligence (GeneDx to Acquire Fabric Genomics, Enabling Decentralized, AI-Powered Testing at Global Scale).
Fabric Genomics (Fabric Genomics Inc) offers AI-driven genomics software to accurately analyze whole genomes, exomes and gene panels. Founded in 2019—and partnered in 2013 with Artis Ventures—Fabric's analytic capabilities begin with raw data analysis and include the delivery of comprehensive insights from high throughput panels. On December 07, 2023, PlumCare RWE and Fabric Genomics partnered to deliver the Fabric AI platform with the PlumCare RWE FirstSteps newborn genome screening program in Greece. On October 30, 2024, Fabric Genomics partnered with Intermountain Children’s Health to enhance precision diagnosis of infants and children using whole genome sequencing from Broad Clinical Labs. On October 30, 2024, descendantsDNA, Inc. engaged Broad Clinical Labs and Fabric Genomics for genomic services to support human longevity.
GeneDx (GeneDx Holdings Corp) delivers personalized and actionable health insights to inform diagnosis, direct treatment and improve drug discovery by accelerating the use of genomic and large-scale clinical information to enable precision medicine as the standard of care. In particular, GeneDx is offering its industry-leading exome and genome testing and interpretation services, fueled by the world’s largest, rare disease data sets.
GeneDx WGS +0.37% ▲ was among the best performing small cap stocks for 2024, posting over 2600% gain. After analyzing the genome and the exome, GeneDX then translates the comprehensive genomic data into clear-cut diagnoses for patients. So far, the company has scratched the surface of what it estimates is a $30 billion market opportunity: GeneDx (WGS), An Emerging Powerhouse in Genomics Sees Explosive Growth (December 31, 2024).
(On January 09, 2023, Sema4, Nasdaq: SMFR, announced it has changed its name from Sema4 Holdings Corp. to GeneDx Holdings Corp, Nasdaq: WGS).
💈 BigHat Biosciences Inc
Eli Lilly and Co (LLY) has just signed 🖋️ a new research deal with BigHat Biosciences to co-develop next-generation antibody therapeutics, as the pharma company continues to expand its capabilities in AI-driven drug development (Eli Lilly and BigHat Biosciences ink AI antibody discovery deal). As part of the agreement, Lilly is making an equity investment in BigHat and is providing additional support through its Catalyze360 initiative. This includes backing BigHat’s internal gastrointestinal (GI) cancer antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) programme, which is expected to enter clinical trials in 2026. BigHat will retain full global rights and development control over the ADC.
BigHat (2019, US) designs advanced, next-generation antibody therapeutics with its AI-enabled experimental platform, the Milliner™ platform, that integrates a high-speed characterization or “wet” lab with ML technologies to speed the antibody engineering process.
On January 11, 2022, BigHat announced the successful completion of the first stage of a previously undisclosed research collaboration and licensing agreement with Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) applying BigHat’s platform for multi-objective optimization of a next-generation antibody. The achievement of this first milestone showed that BigHat’s platform has the potential to effectively and efficiently design high-quality therapeutic antibodies. On November 29, 2022, BigHat announced a collaboration with Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, to apply the company’s technology to design candidates for up to three drug discovery programs. Moreover on December 5, 2023, AbbVie Inc (NYSE: ABBV) and BigHat announced a research collaboration to discover and develop next-generation therapeutic antibodies in oncology and neuroscience (AbbVie and BigHat Biosciences Announce Research Collaboration to Leverage Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Discover Next-Generation Therapeutic Antibodies).
On April 24, 2024, BigHat Biosciences announced a novel collaboration with Janssen Biotech Inc, a Johnson & Johnson company (BigHat Biosciences Enters into Strategic Collaboration to Leverage Machine Learning in Antibody Discovery & Design), to combine the drug discovery, clinical development and data science expertise from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) with BigHat’s Milliner™ platform, and guide the design and selection for high-quality antibodies for multiple neuroscience therapeutic targets.
On November 5, 2024, Synaffix, a Lonza company (SWX:LONN) focused on commercializing its clinical-stage platform technology for the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with best-in-class therapeutic index, announced that it has licensed its ADC technology to BigHat Biosciences. BigHat will combine Synaffix’s technology with its world-class ML antibody design platform for the development of a new ADC pipeline program (Lonza’s Synaffix Collaborates with BigHat Bioscienceson the Development of a Machine Learning-Designed ADC). Under the terms of the agreement, BigHat will receive target-specific access to Synaffix’s late-clinical stage, site-specific ADC technology platform, which enables the transformation of antibodies into proprietary, best-in-class ADC products.
BigHat is backed by Section 32, Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Amgen Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, Quadrille, Grids Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Innovation Endeavors and Gaingels, and has raised over $100M.
💈 Renovaro Biosciences Inc
On April 19, 2025, Renovaro Inc, a pharmaceutical company specializing in preparations with a market capitalization of $56.45M, was notified by The Nasdaq Stock Market of non-compliance with the exchange’s minimum bid price requirement (Renovaro faces Nasdaq delisting over share price issue). More specifically, the company’s common stock, trading at $0.35, was found to have closed below the required $1.00 threshold for 30 consecutive business days. According to InvestingPro data, the stock has declined nearly 58% year-to-date, reflecting significant investor concerns.
For Renovaro’s latest news:
💈 More News 💈
Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGS:RXRX) Taps Real-World Data With HealthVerity Licensing Deal
RXRX Doses First Patient in Early-Stage B-Cell Lymphomas Study (REC-3565)
HealthVerity Partners with Recursion to Enhance Clinical Trial Analytics with Real-World Data
SkyCell and Microsoft Announce Collaboration to bring Copilot into Pharma Supply Chains
Announcing Agentic Automation with Bidirectional Integration between Microsoft Copilot Studio & UiPath
Predictmedix AI Announces Closing of $100,000 Third Tranche with Strong Insider Participation and Launch of Smart Health AI Stations
BostonGene Announces Participation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025
Engine Biosciences and Experimental Drug Development Centre Partner to Advance Novel Therapies to Combat Cancer
Ono Pharmaceutical leverages Jorna Therapeutics' AI for next-gen drug discovery
💈 LumiSTAR Biotechnology, Inc
LumiSTAR Biotechnology, Inc is an expert in designs of a range of protein-based indicators for cellular dynamics measurements. Their expertise includes photochemistry, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, optogenetic tools and regenerative medicine.
LumiSTAR is combining pioneering iPSC technology and patented live cell bioimaging.
All of these technologies are packaged into an all-optical platform for phenotypic screening, drug discovery and toxicity testing. This high content platform enables customers to do their drug screening tasks in a more efficient and economical way (A Pioneering Biotech Company Redefining Cell Therapy and Drug Discovery Platforms).
💈 Flatiron Health Inc
On April 16, 2025, Flatiron Health announced a partnership with Veeva Systems, a global leader in cloud software for the life sciences industry (Flatiron Health Joins Veeva’s Product Partner Program to Accelerate Oncology Clinical Research). This collaboration builds on the integration of Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ and Veeva EDC (Electronic Data Capture), enhancing value and experience for both research sites and sponsor customers. As a cutting-edge EHR-to-EDC connector, Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ eliminates manual data entry of structured and unstructured data—improving site workflows, lowering data monitoring costs, and accelerating study timelines. Through this partnership, Flatiron and Veeva customers utilizing Flatiron Clinical Pipe™ will benefit from accelerated deployment and continually optimized configurations, ensuring seamless performance and a well-supported experience to meet evolving needs.
Moreover, on April 08, 2025 Oncology-focused digital health company Flatiron Health announced it entered into a strategic partnership with Massive Bio (Flatiron Health, Massive Bio partner to improve clinical trial access). Massive Bio uses AI to identify cancer patients eligible for clinical trials and connect, them and their doctors, to applicable trials. Flatiron will use Massive Bio’s database on a per-study basis to find patients who are not enrolled in clinical trials but live close to a trial site. On January 15, 2025, Massive Bio Recognized by White House Cancer Moonshot for First-of-Their-Kind Pre-Screening Hubs and AI-Powered Trial Matching, Launches $15 Million Initiative at JPM 2025.
Flatiron Health uses big data to transform your health data into insights. Unlike other companies, however, this provider specializes in one health need: the infrastructure of cancer care. Offering one of the industry’s first EHR-to-EDC (Electronic data capture) connectors (Flatiron Clinical Pipe™), Flatiron empowers providers and analysts to generate evidence-based insights that improve the patient experience and streamline operations.
In 2018, Roche paid $1.9 billion for Flatiron's army of electronic health record curators. Flatiron Health was founded in 2012 and became an independent affiliate of the Roche Group in 2018 following its acquisition by Roche’s army of electronic health record curators.
On January 24, 2025, DeepScribe partnered with Flatiron Health on oncology-focused ambient AI to bring DeepScribe's AI documentation to clinicians that use Flatiron's OncoEMR, the cloud-based electronic medical record platform.