Functional ‘digital twin’ of human brain developed by Marseille start-up

A digital replica of the human brain created by a Marseille-based start-up could help doctors better understand and treat epilepsy, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative diseases.

The virtual brain, unique to each patient, enables the effects of neurological surgery to be simulated before the procedure is performed, thereby supporting both clinical practice and research applications.

“It is a project I believe in very much; it really is a revolution in medicine, and we are lucky that it is happening in France as well. It is a tool that will be of real use for all neurodegenerative diseases,” Serge De Senti, CEO of the start-up, called VB-Tech, told The Connexion.

The digital brain twin is created via neuroimaging and multimodal patient data combined with a series of mathematical equations, to map out an active 3D replica on a virtual platform called BrainXplore. 

A fully non-invasive version is under development, which aims to use electroencephalography (EEG) rather than stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG), an invasive procedure currently used by VEP, VB-Tech’s patient-specific computational modelling approach for epilepsy.

The technology is currently being developed for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, however research is also underway for conditions such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.

VB Tech reports that some 50 million people in the world are affected by epilepsy, with 30% of patients being drug-resistant. Within this subgroup of patients, up to 40% of surgeries are unsuccessful due to causes such as imprecise and incomplete identification of seizure epicentres.

“Brain disease care is highly complex, but we can use the brain twin to help identify the source of the problem,” said Mr De Senti.

Alongside the digital programme, neurosurgeons still use their professional judgement to make final decisions.

“In 2018, we conducted a trial involving 53 patients, which already showed very good results, with a success rate of 84%. After that, in 2019, a larger-scale trial was carried out involving 350 patients. The trial ended in 2025 and we are awaiting the results,” said Mr De Senti.

The project is based on more than 25 years of research conducted by Viktor Jirsa and the Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes at Aix-Marseille University.

The technology is already in use for research purposes at four hospitals in France (Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille), the US (UPMC Pittsburgh, UC Davis Health) and Canada (British Columbia Children's Hospital).

“The next steps are to obtain product certification in 2027 so that we can roll it out and make it available to hospitals in 2028. To do this, we need to finish the fundraising campaign.”

To that end, VB-Tech is appealing for people to become shareholders in the company by investing a minimum of €5,000.

More information is available by contacting serge.de-senti@vb-tech.fr.