A startup Vivodyne claims it has developed a new approach to AI-driven drug discovery by creating human tissue models

A biotech startup named Vivodyne argues that the AI drug discovery industry is hindered by a lack of high-quality biological data, and that it has developed a solution in the form of modular robotic labs called HIVE. These labs can grow 20 types of human tissue and autonomously dose and monitor them, generating causal biological data that current AI models lack. This data is typically derived from animal testing, single-cell studies, or protein analysis, rather than living tissue. Andrei Georgescu, Vivodyne’s CEO and co-founder, argues that without human testing, AI models are limited to curing cancer in mice. He emphasizes that existing AI models do not capture the complexity of human biology, a challenge already faced by the pharmaceutical industry, where 90% of drugs that work in animals fail in human trials. Vivodyne, spun out of the University of Pennsylvania in 2021, claims its human tissue models closely mimic real organs, with liver cells showing 94% predictive accuracy, airway tissue matching real tissue 9,6% of the time, and bone marrow achieving 100% concordance in chemotherapy drug tests. The company recently opened what it calls the world’s largest 'human data center' near San Francisco, achieving twice the throughput of all U.S. animal trials combined. The goal is to accelerate drug development by identifying promising candidates before costly clinical trials, which often cost tens of millions of dollars. Georgescu envisions these labs as a key component in generating causal data to train AI models on human biology. He points out that current generative AI models trained on cellular data lack the ability to understand cause and effect, as they are trained on static snapshots rather than dynamic processes. HIVE machines, however, track ongoing experiments where diseased tissue is exposed to stimuli, potentially enabling reinforcement learning that could lead to AI models with a deeper understanding of human biology. This could be crucial for developing combination therapies for complex diseases, which require drugs targeting multiple pathways. Georgescu argues that establishing causality in human biology is essential for making meaningful progress in healthcare. Vivodyne has raised just under $80 million across two funding rounds led by Khosla Ventures. The company is working with multiple major pharmaceutical firms to address the challenges of drug discovery, comparing it to automotive crash testing, where manufacturers are confident in their cars’ safety before testing. Georgescu believes that the data generated by HIVE could help train more accurate AI models, ultimately advancing medical treatments and research.