A company that makes digital versions of human bodies for testing medical devices has raised £3.5 million in seed funding, including from Northern Gritstone, the investment company.

Adsilico, which was spun out of the University of Leeds, mixes computer modelling with healthcare to create virtual twins of people on a computer so that doctors can experiment with the impact of different treatments on synthetic populations.

The models can create specific virtual conditions or can target specific groups of people or characteristics. They also enable testing on vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, who do not take part in medical trials. The company claims that this speeds up the bench laboratory testing process, eliminates the need for animal involvement, gives more accurate responses from trials and personalises therapies.

Digital twins are regularly used in other sectors, such as aviation, where scientists model the impact of flight conditions and temperature on virtual aircraft.

Alex Frangi, 51, the company’s co-founder, said that in medical applications Adsilico helped scientists to “fail faster and earlier. Testing doesn’t necessarily need a fully human model, we create a model of a particular area of interest. It could be the heart. It could be the vasculature. It could be the lungs. It could be the bones. We can test the specific therapies and specific analyses.”

The Argentina-born Frangi, who has just been awarded British citizenship, said the investment would be used “to turn concepts, prototypes and ideas into a service that is robust, that is efficient and meets standards. Also to start attracting our first clients.”

Founded in 2022, Adsilico emerged from research at the Centre for Computational Imaging and Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine at the University of Leeds. Frangi researched the subject as a Royal Academy of Engineering chair in emerging technologies.

Duncan Johnson, 53, the chief executive of Northern Gritstone, which is chaired by Lord O’Neill of Gatley, the economist and former government minister, emphasised the emergence of Adsilico from science and technology sector in the north of England, adding: “Computational modelling has the potential to revolutionise the MedTech industry and reduce the risks to humans.”

Launched in July 2021 by the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, Northern Gritstone announced the completion of its initial fundraising at £312 million in October 2023. It has made 17 investments in British science and technology businesses to date.

Adsilico is also backed by Parkwalk Advisors, a growth fund manager that is also active in the university spin-out sector. It has more than £500 million of assets under management and investments in more than 160 companies.