Vale Biolabs combines lab-grown human brain tissue, automation and predictive AI to improve research into neurological diseases, evaluate potential treatments and support the development of new therapies.
Biotech startup Vale Biolabs has received €164,000 (CHF 150,000) from Venture Kick to advance its platform for studying brain diseases and evaluating potential treatments.
Founded by Ilaria Incaviglia, Angeliki Damilou, Daniel Medina Cano and Theodoulos Rodosthenous, Vale Biolabs combines lab-grown human brain tissue, automation and predictive AI to help researchers better understand how the brain responds to drugs and support the development of new therapies. The founding team brings together expertise in organoid neurobiology, automation, data science engineering and early-stage venture development.
Developing treatments for neurological disorders remains challenging, particularly because preclinical research relies heavily on animal testing. Differences between animal and human biology can make it difficult to predict how drugs will perform in patients, contributing to failures during clinical trials, increasing development costs and delaying new therapies.
Vale Biolabs aims to address these challenges by developing standardised human brain organoids, miniature tissue models that reproduce certain characteristics of the human brain. Using automation, the company monitors changes in these models over time, analysing their structure, activity and molecular responses before and after exposure to potential treatments.
The collected data is used to develop predictive AI models that support research into brain development, neurodegenerative diseases and healthy brain ageing. By allowing drug developers to test treatments on human brain tissue earlier in the development process, the platform aims to identify promising therapies and potential failures before they reach clinical trials.
The technology could support research into a range of neurological conditions, including rare brain disorders and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, while potentially reducing development costs and accelerating the introduction of new treatments.
The funding from Venture Kick will support the further development of Vale Biolabs’ automated platform, the expansion of its human brain organoid models and the generation of datasets to train and validate its predictive AI models. It will also help the company advance collaborations with research and industry partners.