Vale Biolabs wins €164,000 to develop brain tissue research technology

Venture Kick has awarded biotech start-up Vale Biolabs €164,000 (CHF 150,000) to develop a platform that uses laboratory-grown human brain tissue to investigate neurological diseases and assess prospective therapies.

The platform brings together automated processes and predictive artificial intelligence. Its tissue models, known as brain organoids, reproduce selected characteristics of the human brain. Automated monitoring measures their activity, structure and molecular responses, tracking how these change when candidate treatments are introduced.

Vale Biolabs aims to help developers assess drugs using human tissue at an earlier stage, identifying candidates that show promise or might fail before clinical testing. Data from the organoids feeds into AI models intended to support studies of brain development, neurodegenerative conditions and healthy ageing.

The money will fund improvements to the automated platform, a broader range of organoid models and datasets for AI training and validation. It will also support further collaboration with researchers and industry partners.

The founders are Ilaria Incaviglia, Angeliki Damilou, Daniel Medina Cano and Theodoulos Rodosthenous. Their backgrounds cover organoid neurobiology, automation, data science engineering and the development of early-stage ventures.