InVirtuoLabs to lead €2.3M Eurostars grant project NEUROSPARK

Virtual Cell Models act as AI-driven “digital twins” of living cells, simulating how diseased cells respond to potential therapies. In practice, the approach helps research teams prioritize the most promising molecules, reduce trial-and-error, and shorten R&D cycles.

InVirtuoLabs will use the cell models as part of the Eurostars project NEUROSPARK. Run with 7hc (Italy), INSYBIO (Greece) and oloBion (Spain), the 36-month project brings together biological data generation, software development, and bioinformatics/AI analysis in a Eurostars collaboration across several European countries.

The research effort aims to identify and experimentally validate 3–5 lead small molecules for Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3 (SCA3), a rare neurodegenerative movement disorder. Work will focus on key disease mechanisms, including lowering toxic protein build-up, improving cellular health, and increasing survival in preclinical models.

NEUROSPARK is a key milestone in the biotech startup’s shift from platform development to validated drug discovery. Founder and CEO Gianvito Grasso expects three major impacts: improved preclinical success by reducing lab trial-and-error; faster progress toward neurodegenerative treatments, with potential expansion from SCA3 into Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s; and stronger commercial traction through co-development, industry collaboration, and licensing with biotech and pharma partners.

Over the next 12 months, InVirtuoLabs will launch the Eurostars program and build high-quality biological datasets to train the platform. A first working version of the Virtual Cell Models is planned for the second half of the year, with competitive prediction performance targeted by year-end and downstream experimental validation of AI-generated drug candidates to follow.

Progress with partnerships and support programs

Alongside the research program, the company is expanding industrial partnerships through pharma co-development deals, tailoring its digital twin approach to partners’ neurodegeneration projects using disease-specific data. Relationships with Contract Research Organizations are also progressing to scale validation capacity. On the other hand Gianvito Grasso also confirmed that InVirtuoLabs is pursuing strategic compute collaborations with Nvidia, Google, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft.

Non-dilutive support remains central to the startup’s growth. In addition to Eurostars, InVirtuoLabs participates in the Innosuisse Flagship project ORION and is pursuing further Horizon Europe and Swiss funding opportunities to scale into additional therapeutic areas.

On the research side, InVirtuoLabs continues to grow its academic network. “We’re collaborating with the University of Milano-Bicocca and maintaining strong links with the USI Startup Centre, IDSIA (Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence), the University of Pisa, disease foundations, and clinical researchers across Europe,” the CEO concluded.

(Luca Lamoni)