The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the philanthropic organization created in 2015 by Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg, announced a bold new generative AI initiative today. The group is funding and building a high-end GPU cluster that will use AI to create predictive models of healthy and diseased cells; it hopes they’ll help researchers better understand the human body’s cells and cellular reactions. The group believes the collection of computers will help it achieve its incredibly lofty goal of helping to “cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of this century.”

“Researchers are gathering more data than ever before about the trillions of cells within our bodies, and it’s too complex for our brains to grapple with,” Jeff MacGregor, CZI vice president of communications, wrote in an emailed statement to Engadget. He lists an example of imaging one cell at nanometer resolution, which would use the same amount of data as 83,000 photos on a smartphone. Sifting through the finer details of a cache of cellular models like that is where generative AI could play a role.

The system will use a cluster of over 1,000 GPUs to train AI large language models (LLMs) on human cells. “LLMs have done an impressive job at helping us understand protein structure, and we think they will be equally great at helping us understand more complex structures like cells,” MacGregor said. He expects the AI models to draw insights and conclusions beyond even the capabilities of a team of human experts. “But also, it’s about the speed at which they can do this. It would take that team of experts years to draw the types of insights rather than weeks that it will take for the models to do so.”

Chan lists other examples of how LLMs could tackle biomedicine’s problems. “AI models could predict how an immune cell responds to an infection, what happens at the cellular level when a child is born with a rare disease, or even how a patient’s body will respond to a new medication,” the co-founder and co-CEO said. “We hope that this collaborative effort will generate new insights about the fundamental characteristics of our cells.”

The group describes the GPU clusters as one of the first to power “openly available” models of human cells, suggesting the investment could yield dividends for under-funded researchers with bright ideas. Examples of data the models will train on include those integrated into the Chan Zuckerberg Cell by Gene tool (with its existing database of over 50 million cells), resources from CZ Science research institutes and publicly available datasets. CZI Head of Science Stephen Quake describes one of the project’s goals as creating a “virtual biology simulator.”

“AI is creating new opportunities in biomedicine, and building a high-performance computing cluster dedicated to life science research will accelerate progress on important scientific questions about how our cells work,” said Zuckerberg. “Developing digital models capable of predicting all cell types and cell states from the genome will help researchers better understand our cells and how they behave in health and disease.”

The newly upgraded particle accelerator at the DoE’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has produced its first X-rays. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) upgrade, LCLS-II, can emit up to a million X-ray pulses per second (8,000 times more than the original) and an almost continuous beam 10,000 times brighter than its predecessor. Researchers believe it will enable unprecedented research into “atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena” and shed new light on quantum computing, communications, clean energy and medicine.

One of the keys to the accelerator’s powerful upgrade is its cooling abilities. The original LCLS, which went online in 2009, was capped at 120 pulses per second because of the natural limits of how many electrons could simultaneously travel through the accelerator’s room-temperature copper pipes. But the updated version includes 37 cryogenic modules cooled to negative 456 degrees Fahrenheit (colder than outer space), allowing it to “boost electrons to high energies with nearly zero energy loss.” The new accelerator will work in parallel with the existing copper one.

SLAC researchers say the new capabilities will allow them to examine details of quantum materials with unprecedented resolution while enabling new forms of quantum computing and “reveal unpredictable and fleeting chemical events” to help advance clean energy tech. In addition, they say it could help scientists develop new pharmaceuticals by studying how biological molecules work on an unprecedented scale. Finally, they stated that its unmatched 8,000 flashes per second will “open up entirely new fields of scientific investigation.”

SLAC

SLAC researchers began envisioning upgrades to the original LCLS in 2010. The project has since gone through $1.1 billion and has involved “thousands of scientists, engineers, and technicians across DOE, as well as numerous institutional partners.” It required numerous “cutting-edge components,” including a new electron source, two cryoplants to produce refrigerant and two new undulators to generate X-rays from the beam. Multiple institutions contributed to the endeavor, including five US national labs (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, among others) and Cornell University.

“Experiments in each of these areas are set to begin in the coming weeks and months, attracting thousands of researchers from across the nation and around the world,” said LCLS Director Mike Dunne. “DOE user facilities such as LCLS are provided at no cost to the users — we select on the basis of the most important and impactful science. LCLS-II is going to drive a revolution across many academic and industrial sectors. I look forward to the onslaught of new ideas — this is the essence of why national labs exist.”

Sir Ian Wilmut, the scientist who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, has died at 79. The University of Edinburgh, where he served as a professor before his 2012 retirement, announced his passing today. Dolly was the first successful cloning of a mammal from an adult somatic cell, demonstrating the viability of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The controversial milestone helped pave the way for today’s research on regenerative medicine.

Born near Stratford-upon-Avon (also Shakespeare’s birthplace) in 1944, Wilmut discovered an interest in biology while at school in Scarborough; he later switched his major at the University of Nottingham from agriculture to animal science, kicking off the work he would be most known for. His Ph.D. studies at the University of Cambridge foreshadowed his later breakthroughs, focusing on “the preservation of semen and embryos for freezing.” In 1972, he became the first scientist to successfully freeze, thaw and transfer a calf embryo, which he called “Frostie,” to a surrogate mother.

Wilmut’s work at The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh continued to push the boundaries of animal genetics. He strived to create modified sheep that would produce milk with proteins that could treat human diseases. A year before Dolly, he successfully cloned two lambs (Megan and Morag) whose cells were taken from sheep embryos.

University of Edinburgh

Dolly’s successful birth in 1996 marked the first time a mammal was successfully cloned from an adult cell. The scientifically groundbreaking announcement also set off a media firestorm as experts and casual observers wrestled with lab-made mammals’ ethical implications. Specifically, many wondered: If they’re doing sheep now, how long until they clone humans? Religious groups accused the researchers of “playing God.” Even those who focused more on the natural world than supernatural ones worried about the potential for making “designer humans” or something out of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

While Dolly proved that cells could be used to create a copy of the animal they came from, Wilmut’s next experiment proved that they could also be altered. Polly, born in 1997, was the first genetically modified cloned mammal. His team spliced the host’s genes with a human gene to create a sheep that would produce a protein missing from people with hemophilia. Polly was Wilmut’s last cloning experiment.

Wilmut moved to the University of Edinburgh the following decade, focusing on using cloning to make stem cells for regenerative medicine. He was knighted in 2008 and retired in 2012. Wilmut was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018 and became a patron of a new research program at the university working to slow the disease’s progression with next-gen therapies.

According toThe Guardian, Sir Ian is survived by his wife Sara, his children — Helen, Naomi and Dean — and his five grandchildren: Daniel, Matthew, Isaac, Tonja and Tobias.