Northern Gritstone invests £2 million in adsilico

Northern Gritstone has made a £2 million investment into adsilico, a groundbreaking computational medicine company, spunout from the University of Leeds, based on research funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In-silico trials (ISTs) use modelling and simulation to produce scientific evidence of device performance and safety, before testing in human clinical trials. adsilico has developed a ground-breaking 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. This will allow medical device manufacturers to accelerate R&D, reduce the need for animal experimentation, and augment costly human trials.

The company Founder is Professor Alex Frangi,  Bicentennial Turing Chair of Computational Medicine at the University of Manchester and Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute for Health Technology Research. The adsilico team also includes CEO and Co-Founder Sheena Macpherson and Co-Founders Dr Nishant Ravikumar and Dr Zeike Taylor, both based at the University of Leeds.

Northern Gritstone’s investment of £2 million sits alongside co-investor Parkwalk Advisors investment of £1.5 million. The combined £3.5 million investment will be used to fund essential development in adsilico and build the team.

Northern Gritstone CEO, Duncan Johnson, 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.” 

adsilico Founder, Professor Alex Frangi, 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”.  

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”.