Funding the Virtual Cell Initiative
Google DeepMind, Meta, and AI drug discovery startup Isomorphic Labs are jointly investing $300 million into Biohub, the nonprofit biomedical research organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The funding is part of a $1.8 billion initiative to build AI datasets that could allow researchers to query and answer biological questions digitally, helping find new ways to prevent and manage diseases.
Google and Meta Back Biohub Research
The Zuckerberg-backed Biohub will use the investment to create AI datasets that help researchers model biological questions digitally.
Expanding Federal and Private Support
Founded in 2016, Biohub aims to combat diseases through the creation of a virtual cell that researchers can use to carry out simulations. To support this effort, the US Department of Energy will invest more than $500 million over the next five years, while the National Institutes of Health will contribute datasets, repositories, and knowledge bases stemming from previous federal investment totalling over $500 million.
An accurate predictive model of biology could dramatically accelerate scientific discovery by enabling scientists to perform experiments digitally, according to Biohub science leadership. The creation of a virtual cell represents a major challenge for the next era of science and requires coordinated data generation efforts at scale.
