Biohub launches $1.8B virtual biology program

Biohub, the institute funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, announced a $1.8 billion expansion of its Virtual Biology Program with the US Department of Energy, NIH, Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Meta. The goal is to map hundreds of billions of cells and build a "world model of life."

• Program budget is $1.8B; partners include DOE, NIH, DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Meta
• Plan covers atlases of hundreds of billions of cells in health and disease
• New "laser phase plate" boosts contrast in cryo-electron tomography
• Target is a transition model predicting cell state after perturbations