Google DeepMind, Meta and Isomorphic Labs invest $300 million in Zuckerberg-backed virtual cell project

Google and Meta back virtual cell project

Google DeepMind, Meta and AI drug discovery startup Isomorphic Labs are jointly investing $300 million into an initiative to create a "virtual cell" that researchers can use to combat disease. The project is led by Biohub, a nonprofit biomedical research organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

The investment forms part of a $1.8 billion "Virtual Biology" initiative to build AI datasets that could allow researchers to "ask, predict, and answer biological questions digitally."

A predictive model of the cell

Founded in 2016, Biohub aims to prevent and cure diseases through the creation of a "high-accuracy predictive model of the cell" that researchers can use to carry out simulations. According to Alex Rives, Biohub's head of science, an accurate predictive model of biology could dramatically accelerate scientific discovery by enabling scientists to perform experiments digitally.

Rives described the creation of a virtual cell as one of the most important challenges for the next era of science, adding that it will require coordinated data generation efforts at a national and international scale, which is why these partners are coming together.

Federal support

To support the 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 totaling over $500 million.

Sources: Techmeme