Cubase Bio, a Stockholm-based spatial biology startup founded in 2024, has secured approximately €1 million in Eurostars funding to develop an innovative platform combining 3D spatial transcriptomics with human cardiac organoids for drug discovery applications.
The grant, awarded through the Horizon Europe-backed Eurostars program with co-funding from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova and Austria’s Research Promotion Agency (FFG), will support the FACTS-3D project. The initiative represents a collaboration between Cubase Bio and Vienna-based organoid specialist HeartBeat.bio, bringing together complementary technologies to address challenges in cardiovascular drug development.
Bridging Spatial Context and Cardiac Research
The project aims to create a scalable platform for high-throughput cardiac drug screening by integrating Cubase Bio’s spatial transcriptomics capabilities with HeartBeat.bio’s human cardiac organoids. The combination addresses a fundamental limitation in current drug discovery approaches: the loss of spatial context when analyzing biological tissues at the molecular level.
Malte Kühnemund, CEO of Cubase Bio, emphasized the importance of three-dimensional organization in cardiac biology. “Cardiac biology is a perfect example of why 3D spatial context matters so much. The way cells organize in three dimensions is central to how a heart chamber is built, what happens when fibrosis occurs and how the heart remodels itself. Our technology was built to capture exactly that kind of complexity in full 3 dimensions,” Kühnemund stated.
Targeting Myocardial Fibrosis and Heart Failure
The funded research will focus on generating insights into myocardial fibrosis and heart failure mechanisms, conditions that represent significant unmet medical needs. Myocardial fibrosis—the excessive accumulation of fibrous tissue in the heart—contributes to various cardiac pathologies and remains a challenge for pharmaceutical development.
By combining spatial transcriptomics with organoid models, the FACTS-3D platform will enable researchers to observe how genes are expressed within the three-dimensional architecture of cardiac tissue. This approach should yield more physiologically relevant data compared to traditional two-dimensional cell culture systems, potentially reducing development timelines and improving drug candidate selection.
Growing European Innovation in Spatial Biology
The funding decision reflects growing recognition within European research funding bodies of spatial transcriptomics’ potential to advance biomedical innovation. The Eurostars program, which targets research-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises, has increasingly supported companies developing cutting-edge biology technologies that bridge basic research and commercial applications.
The partnership between Swedish and Austrian companies demonstrates the collaborative nature of Europe’s healthtech ecosystem, with startups combining specialized expertise across borders to address complex scientific challenges. As spatial biology technologies mature, such cross-border initiatives are likely to accelerate the development of next-generation drug discovery platforms addressing cardiovascular diseases and other therapeutic areas where three-dimensional tissue organization plays a critical role.