NYC Startup Creates Digital Twins to Advance Medical Research

Imagine doctors testing new surgeries on a perfect digital copy of your body before ever picking up a scalpel. That future just got closer thanks to Mantis Biotech, a New York startup creating "digital twins" of humans to fill critical gaps in medical research.

The company raised $7.4 million to tackle a problem that has frustrated scientists for years: rare diseases and unusual medical conditions don't have enough data to study properly. When you need information about how someone missing a finger uses their hand, or how a rare genetic condition affects the body, existing datasets come up empty.

Mantis builds its digital twins by pulling together information from medical textbooks, motion capture cameras, biometric sensors, training logs, and medical imaging. An AI system validates and synthesizes these different data streams, then runs everything through a physics engine to create realistic, testable models of human anatomy and behavior.

The physics engine is the secret sauce. It lets Mantis generate realistic data for situations that rarely get recorded, like hand movements for someone with missing fingers or how bodies respond to experimental treatments. These virtual humans can be tested, pushed, and studied without any ethical concerns about patient privacy.

Professional sports teams are already using the technology. An NBA team now tracks how their athletes' jumps change over time based on sleep, training load, and repetitive movements. The system can even predict injury risks, like whether an NFL player might develop an Achilles problem based on their recent performance and activity patterns.

"I want people to have that mindset with our digital twins," says founder and CEO Georgia Witchel, comparing the freedom researchers should feel to a child playing fearlessly with a doll. "Humans can be tested on when you're using virtual humans."

The Ripple Effect

Beyond sports, Mantis is opening doors for pharmaceutical researchers and clinical trials. When studying how patients respond to new drugs, these digital twins can fill in gaps where real patient data is scarce or ethically difficult to collect.

The platform could train surgical robots, simulate medical procedures before they happen, and help doctors make better treatment decisions. For rare disease patients who often feel left behind by research that focuses on common conditions, this technology offers new hope for understanding and treating their conditions.

Mantis plans to eventually release the platform publicly, targeting preventative healthcare. The goal is letting everyday people understand their own health risks and optimize their wellbeing before problems develop.

The startup is proving that sometimes the best way to help real humans is by creating virtual ones first.