Northern Gritstone, the investment firm focused on science and technology businesses in the North of England, has teamed up with Parkwalk Advisors to announce a joint £3.5 million investment in adsilico Limited, a spin-off from the University of Leeds with founders from both Leeds and Manchester universities.
The investment will support adsilico in developing their innovative in-silico trials (ISTs) technique, which uses modelling and simulation to provide evidence of device performance and safety before human clinical trials. This ground-breaking approach combines data sources and generative AI to create synthetic populations for clinical trials, reducing the need for animal testing and speeding up R&D for medical device manufacturers.
Northern Gritstone’s £2 million investment, alongside Parkwalk Advisors’ £1.5 million, will fund the development of adsilico’s technology and team. Professor Alejandro Frangi, Founder of adsilico and Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine at The University of Manchester, expressed gratitude for the support, highlighting the potential of their scalable solution to revolutionize the medical device market.
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone, praised the potential of computational modelling to transform the MedTech industry and reduce risks to humans. Moray Wright, CEO of Parkwalk Advisors, commended adsilico’s pioneering approach and its impact on accelerating innovation in medical device development.
Professor Nick Plant, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds, emphasised the importance of the funding in advancing medical device development and improving safety through innovative technologies. The investment reflects Leeds’ commitment to driving innovation and delivering positive outcomes for healthcare professionals and patients.
