FanX founder launches ‘virtual human’ biotech startup

FanX co-founder Bryan Brandenburg formally unveiled Zenerchi this week, a biotech startup effort that’s developing a platform to digitally simulate the human body down to the cellular level. | Zenerchi

SALT LAKE CITY — A man best known for co-founding events that have drawn hundreds of thousands of comic book and science fiction fans to Utah just launched a new company that is looking to develop science fact out of what was once science fantasy.

Bryan Brandenburg, co-founder of FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention (formerly Salt Lake Comic Con) officially unveiled his startup effort Zenerchi this week, a platform aiming to simulate human physiology down to the sub-cellular level. Think “Fantastic Voyage,” come to life.

The technology could be utilized for wide variety of use-cases, Brandenburg said, including in biomedical and pharmaceutical research and development, wellness/fitness programs, and even so-called “edutainment” and visual exhibitions.

Brandenburg told the Deseret News he was able to step back from day-to-day operations at FanX a couple of years ago to focus on the development efforts behind Zenerchi. But it’s really been a project in the works for decades, going back to his years in the biotech industry long before the fanfest launched in 2013.

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Posted by Bryan Brandenburg on Wednesday, October 30, 2019

“About 14 years ago, I was CEO of a scientific visualization company working on 3D anatomy modeling and doing work for movie studios to visualize the human body,” Brandenburg said. “Really, I’ve been working on this for several decades in doing a lot of work on the visualization of anatomy and internal systems from atoms to organs.”

Zenerchi has plans in place to unveil its first public-facing tech implementation next year with a simulation visualization lab. The work will lean on leading open source physiology simulation software developed by Stanford University, MIT, Indiana University, Harvard Medical School and the Department of Defense.

“We’re already working with a cell simulator out of Stanford and have been able to simulate every gene in the cell and test a variety of outputs,” Brandenburg said. “We have simulators at a macro level that we’re working with that simulate asthma attacks, heat stroke, blunt force trauma and other anomalies that have been developed through private efforts and the Defense Department.”

Zenerchi

FanX co-founder Bryan Brandenburg formally unveiled Zenerchi this week, a biotech startup effort that’s developing a platform to digitally simulate the human body down to the cellular level.

Brandenburg said Zenerchi’s platform will combine both biologically accurate modeling with visualizations in a technique that has not yet been perfected, even though there are “thousands of simulators out there.”

“The problem has been that none of them ‘talk’ to each other,” Brandenburg said. “We’re at a position where we can start that integration.”

Brandenburg said he has a team of developers working in Vietnam and headed up by a former development manager for gaming giant Electronic Arts.

“The co-founders and core participants in Zenerchi include some of the most talented technologists and leaders from the prior organizations I’ve led or founded,” Brandenburg said in a statement. “Together with this incredible ‘brain trust’ in the U.S. and abroad, combined with world-class physiology open source simulation software partners, we intend to scale the Zenerchi SimViz AI Platform for license, joint ventures, and use by our current and future partners at full speed.”

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