HeartBeat.bio and biotx.ai Sign License and Technology Access Agreement to Identify Novel Targets in Heart Failure
Vienna / Berlin, July 7, 2025 – HeartBeat.bio AG and biotx.ai GmbH today announced a strategic partnership to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets in heart failure. The collaboration combines biotx.ai’s causal mapping of the genome for target discovery with HeartBeat.bio’s human-based Cardioid Drug Discovery Platform to drive innovation in heart failure drug development.
Under the agreement, biotx.ai will apply its large-scale Mendelian randomization platform to discover previously unrecognized genetic targets causal for heart failure. HeartBeat.bio will exclusively validate these targets using its unique in vitro Cardioid platform – a human, chamber-like cardiac organoid system that recapitulates key aspects of heart biology and disease. HeartBeat.bio will hold exclusive rights to initiate internal drug discovery programs or enter third-party co-development partnerships based on the validated targets. All resulting intellectual property will be owned by HeartBeat.bio. biotx.ai is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties on future products developed from these targets.
Heart failure affects more than 30 million people in the major pharmaceutical markets and remains a leading cause of death and hospitalization. Despite recent therapeutic advances, many patients lack effective treatment options. The ability to identify new, genetically validated targets and test them in a human-relevant system has the potential to unlock a new generation of precision medicines for heart failure.
“Our mission is to transform the way heart failure is treated by combining our human-based drug discovery platform with cutting-edge AI technologies,” said Michael Krebs, CEO of HeartBeat.bio. “This collaboration with biotx.ai allows us to explore the full potential of novel, genetically guided targets for therapeutic innovation.”
“biotx.ai is committed to turning complex biological data into actionable drug targets,” said Marco Schmidt, CEO of biotx.ai. “Partnering with HeartBeat.bio enables us to bridge the gap from causal genes to functional validation in a highly relevant human model. Together, we aim to accelerate the development of disease-modifying therapies for heart failure.”
About HeartBeat.bio
HeartBeat.bio AG is a pioneering TechBio company developing breakthrough therapies for heart failure through its next-generation Cardioid Drug Discovery Platform. This proprietary platform integrates iPSC-derived cardiac organoids with advanced automation and AI-driven analytics to enable scalable, human-centric drug discovery. By replacing traditional animal models with physiologically relevant and scalable human model systems, HeartBeat.bio enhances translational predictability, shortens development timelines, and reduces clinical failure rates.
The company is advancing its own therapeutic pipeline while strategically partnering with pharma and biotech companies to co-develop transformative heart failure treatments. Initial focus areas include cardiomyopathies, myocardial fibrosis, and its effects on cardiac remodeling, a chronic disease phenotype prevalent in most heart failure patients.
HeartBeat.bio was founded in 2021 and is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Austria, one of the leading life science clusters in Europe. The Company received private investments by aws Gründungsfonds II, i&i Biotech Fund, Invest AG, red-stars.com data AG, and Tensor Ventures Fund as well as grants from the Austrian promotional bank (AWS), Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Vienna Business Agency.
For further information, please visit www.heartbeat.bio or follow us on LinkedIn. For media inquiries or partnership interest please contact office@heartbeat.bio.
About biotx.ai
biotx.ai's vision is to disrupt the high-risk biotech business model through a more predictable, data-driven approach. Through causal mapping of the genome, we elucidate disease biology and enable robust prediction of clinical trial success — paving the way for a new era in therapeutics.
By curating a comprehensive catalog based on 9,539 genome-wide association study (GWAS) datasets including >22M cases across >3k diseases, biotx.ai tests all 23,280 genes and more than >1M Omics markers in >60 tissues for each disease using causal inference tools such as Mendelian randomization (MR) or colocalization. The platform leverages advanced machine learning to identify clusters, pinpointing the essential causal relationships of drug targets. This process connects drug targets directly to disease biology, uncovering novel candidates with verified causal links to various health conditions.
biotx.ai was founded in 2017 and is located at the Potsdam Science Park in the Berlin/Brandenburg metropolitan region, Germany. Work at biotx.ai has been supported by SPRIN-D, Germany's Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, and Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB).
For further information, please visit www.biotx.ai or follow us on LinkedIn. For media inquiries or partnership interest, please contact info@biotx.ai.
