U.S. Agencies, Tech Firms Expand $1.8 Billion AI Biology Initiative

Biohub, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and technology companies expanded a $1.8 billion Virtual Biology Initiative on Oct. 7 to build data and computing systems for models that predict how cells behave.

The total combines new and earlier funding with existing datasets, computing resources and biological measurement technology. It is not a single cash investment.

The DOE plans to spend more than $500 million over five years through the Genesis Mission on laboratory measurement, modeling and computation. The NIH will coordinate datasets, repositories and knowledge bases developed through more than $500 million in earlier federal investment, while Biohub will help organize and standardize the material for AI training.

Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Meta are collectively investing $300 million. Biohub’s founding commitment totals $500 million, including $400 million for measurement and engineering technologies and $100 million for research outside the organization.

The planned work spans cryo-electron tomography, microscopy capable of imaging millions to billions of cells, X-ray and neutron scattering, cryo-electron microscopy, autonomous laboratories and exascale computing. NVIDIA will provide accelerated-computing infrastructure, software and technical expertise.

Scientific partners include the Allen Institute, Broad Institute, Gladstone Institutes, Human Cell Atlas, Human Protein Atlas and Wellcome Sanger Institute.

The initiative is intended to create open, standardized biological datasets covering more cell types and conditions. Researchers would use those datasets to study how cells respond to treatments and other interventions and to test biological questions digitally.

Alex Rives, Biohub’s head of science, said, “An accurate predictive model of biology could dramatically accelerate scientific discovery by enabling scientists to perform experiments digitally.”

The Virtual Biology Initiative was announced in April with Biohub’s $500 million founding commitment. Existing projects include Tabula Sapiens, OpenCell, Zebrahub, CELLxGENE and the CryoET Data Portal.

No date was provided for a public dataset or a working virtual-cell model.