The human body is an intricate system made of trillions of cells that interact with one another to help us function. Over the last decade, advances in imaging and sequencing technologies have enabled researchers to gather new information about our cells in unprecedented detail. For example, scientists at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco built Tabula Sapiens, an open cell atlas of the entire human body that allows researchers to characterize subtle molecular differences between cells that may underpin early signs of disease and uncover new targets for more effective treatments.

At the same time, there have been extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence with huge potential to accelerate this work at scale. CZI is building one of the largest computing systems for nonprofit life science research that will be trained on biologically relevant data sources. This approach is possible because tools like Chan Zuckerberg CELL by GENE aggregate and standardize these data to streamline analysis and modeling. Tabula Sapiens and other datasets will feed into AI models that will help researchers develop “virtual cells” to predict how cells react to an infection, for example, or even patient-specific responses to new medications.

Watch the video to learn more about what we hope to accomplish next using AI for biomedical discovery and analysis.