Riga-based Cellbox Labs, a developer of miniature human organ replicas outside the body, has secured €3.3 million in non-dilutive funding to enhance its dynamic organ-on-a-chip technology. Part of the funding is from state aid under the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) in healthcare, known as “Tech4Cure,” which boosts EU industrial resilience and strengthens the Single Market.
The company stated: “Personalised gut-on-chip systems are crucial for accurately predicting individual responses to drugs, food, and probiotics, offering new value to the pharma, nutrition, and functional food industries.”
Founded in 2020 by Artūrs Ābols, Gatis Mozoļevskis, and Roberts Rimša, Cellbox Labs specialises in organ-on-chip systems; micro-engineered setups that separate endothelial and epithelial layers with a permeable membrane, allowing the modeling of organs like the kidney, gut, lung, blood-brain barrier, and pancreas. These use non-absorbing materials optimized for drug discovery.
The platform provides controlled gas conditions, is mass produced for consistency, and includes an automated system that decreases manual labor and allows scalable throughput from 8 to 24 chips.
The funding will support four main initiatives:
1. In collaboration with Altis Biosystems, Cellbox Labs will scale an automated, primary cell-based gut-on-chip model for pharmaceutical throughput, advancing towards personalized models using iPSCs and patient-derived microbiota.
2. The company will embed oxygen and pH sensors in each organ-on-chip assay to generate live data without extra hardware, aligning with the industry’s shift towards richer datasets for AI-driven drug discovery.
3. The team will benchmark biosimilar performance by testing GLP-1 generics on pancreatic islet organ-on-chip systems under dynamic flow, comparing with static cultures and animal models to enhance the physiological relevance of biosimilar testing.
4. Alongside ESQlabs and MPSlabs, Cellbox Labs will create high-fidelity digital twin models of its in vitro systems, integrating with physiologically based human models to enable in vitro–in vivo translation (IVIVE), aiming to boost the predictive power of organ-on-chip platforms for human outcomes.
This strategic roadmap is in line with regulatory developments like the FDA’s plan to phase out animal testing requirements for certain drugs and the NIH’s mandate to incorporate computer modeling, AI, and organ-on-chip technologies in funded research.
The startup previously raised €935k in a 2024 pre-Seed round led by Latvian Buildit VC, with participation from LatBAN angels, ASP Asset Management AIFP, and private investor Ansis Spridzans.
With its latest funding, Cellbox Labs aims to advance its predictive, data-rich, and personalized drug testing platforms, reducing reliance on animal trials.