Vivodyne launches with $38M to create lab-grown human organs

Philadelphia-based AI-enabled biotech company Vivodyne has successfully closed a $38 million seed funding round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from CS Ventures, Kairos Ventures, Bison Ventures, and MBX Capital. Vivodyne specializes in drug discovery, employing clinically predictive AI to identify therapeutic targets and predict patient responses to drugs by testing them on lab-grown human organ tissues. The company utilizes robotic automation to process over 10,000 individual tissues simultaneously, generating extensive human datasets for AI training. The funds raised will be used to advance Vivodyne's drug discovery pipeline and enhance its AI stack.

The technology developed by Vivodyne facilitates the testing of drugs and biologics directly on realistic human tissues at an unprecedented scale and resolution. This approach aims to improve the success rates of therapeutics entering clinical trials. The automated platform covers every step of the testing pipeline, from growing tissues and dosing to sampling, imaging, and data analysis. Khosla Ventures' Alex Morgan emphasized that Vivodyne's technology bridges the gap between preclinical research and human clinical trials.

In the broader context of AI in drug discovery, various companies, such as Genesis and AION Labs, are employing AI-based approaches. Genesis, a California-based startup, raised $200 million in a Series B funding round for its molecular AI platform, while AION Labs, an Israeli partnership involving pharma and tech companies, launched DenovAI, an AI-enabled computational biophysics platform for discovering potential antibodies. The collaboration across disciplines, including academia and industry, is seen as crucial for the success of AI applications in drug discovery.