Google invests millions in Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to create a ‘virtual cell’

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, as reported earlier by Reuters. The project is led by Biohub, a nonprofit biomedical research organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. It comes as 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.” 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. 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,” Alex Rives, Biohub’s head of science, says in the press release. “The creation of a virtual cell is one of the most important challenges for the next era of science. It will require coordinated data generation efforts at a national and international scale, which is why these partners are coming together.” Update, October 7th: Clarified that Google, Meta, and Isomorphic Labs are investing in Biohub’s Virtual Biology initiative.