Zuckerberg and Chan Launch Biohub Initiative for AI Models of Human Cells

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are building artificial intelligence models of human cells through their non-profit organization, Biohub. Euronews reported that Biohub announced a five-year initiative last week to create the technologies and datasets needed to build predictive models of human cells.

The organization stated it will make the data it generates open and freely available to researchers worldwide.

Biohub has allocated $400 million, around €348 million, for its own work on this project. An additional $100 million, around €87 million, will be made available to external researchers. Zuckerberg stated last year that Biohub's long-term goal is to cure all human disease through the intersection of AI and biology.

In 2016, Zuckerberg and Chan set up Biohub to bring together scientists and engineers to develop technologies that observe, measure and program biology at the cellular level. Biohub has since gathered the largest single-cell datasets globally and built specialised large-scale computing infrastructure dedicated to biological research.

The initiative reflects broader industry trends in AI-powered biology.

Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet company built on Google’s DeepMind, is using AI for drug discovery. Isomorphic Labs stated it is working to design new medicines. Microsoft has released several healthcare AI models, including those for medical imaging, genomics, clinical records and biomedical research.

Nvidia’s BioNeMo platform is being used by life sciences companies for AI-driven drug discovery. Euronews reported these developments as part of the growing intersection of technology and life sciences.