The world's first high-utility virtual cell, an AI-model accelerating medical breakthroughs
Complex diseases like cancer and heart disease are notoriously hard to study. By creating the world's first high-utility virtual cell, Arc Institute will revolutionize how scientists understand these intractable diseases — and accelerate the development of new, life-saving drugs.
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Project
Description
Big Idea
Despite decades of research, scientists have yet to achieve a breakthrough cure or treatment for any “complex” disease, a category that includes cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and other illnesses that result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. This is not for lack of trying; developing a new cancer drug, for example, typically takes 10-15 years and costs over $2 billion, with about 90% of all drug candidates failing to reach the market. However, recent developments in biotechnology and artificial intelligence create an opportunity to understand the human cell — and thus complex diseases — as never before. That’s why the Arc Institute is creating the world's first high-utility virtual cell — an AI model that simulates and predicts how human cells respond to genetic, environmental, metabolic and chemical factors, from aging and stress to diet and medications. The goal: to transform biological research and replace time-consuming experiments, allowing scientists to finally prevent and cure the diseases that threaten and inhibit lives.
Plan
By bringing world-class biologists and AI experts together under a single roof, Arc Institute's Virtual Cell Initiative will conduct 1 billion high-quality cell experiments to generate the most comprehensive, causal and credible dataset of its kind — and use it to design and train the virtual cell model. This model, which will be validated through extensive lab-derived data, will aim to simulate and predict how cells will respond to a wide assortment of overlapping factors and interventions. By 2029, Arc’s model will be accurate enough for scientists to replace slow, needle-in-a-haystack lab experiments with instant AI predictions, accelerating the discovery of new drug candidates for complex diseases. By making their data and code free for nonprofit researchers worldwide, and hosting an online portal for easy use among labs without AI capacity, Arc will facilitate a global shift in how research on new drugs is conducted.
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