diff --git a/tdc/model_server/model_loaders/scvi.py b/tdc/model_server/model_loaders/scvi.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e43563fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tdc/model_server/model_loaders/scvi.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+
+class scVILoader:
+    
+    def __init__(self):
+        pass
+    
+    def load(self):
+        """load scVI model
+        calling download_scvi() and any other helper functions
+        """
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tdc/model_server/models/scvi.py b/tdc/model_server/models/scvi.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4bf2b0e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tdc/model_server/models/scvi.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+
+class scVI:
+    """class to load and perform inference w/ scvi
+    
+    adding any additional utils from scvi that facilitate inference / data processing
+    """
+    
+    def __init__(self):
+        import scvi
+        pass
+    
+    def forward(self, **kwargs):
+        """
+        loads self.model if needed
+        calls inference on these arguments
+        """
+    
+    def load(self):
+        """import the model loader
+        -> then, LOAD the MODEL CLASS and return it and also save it into self.model"""
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tdc/model_server/tdc_hf.py b/tdc/model_server/tdc_hf.py
index 6571fbcd..16a18a83 100644
--- a/tdc/model_server/tdc_hf.py
+++ b/tdc/model_server/tdc_hf.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
     'CYP3A4_Veith-AttentiveFP',
 ]
 
-model_hub = ["Geneformer", "scGPT"]
+model_hub = ["Geneformer", "scGPT", "scVI"]
 
 
 class tdc_hf_interface:
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@ def load(self):
             AutoModel.register(ScGPTConfig, ScGPTModel)
             model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("tdc/scGPT")
             return model
+        elif self.model_name == "scVI":
+            # import scVI model and return the model class
+            pass
         raise Exception("Not implemented yet!")
 
     def load_deeppurpose(self, save_path):