What You Should Know:
– The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced the formation of a powerful AI Advisory Group and an in-house AI residency program, both focused on building predictive models of healthy and diseased cells – a key step towards creating virtual cell models.
AI Advisory Group Background & Members
CZI’s newly established AI Advisory Group will provide invaluable guidance and cross-disciplinary insights to CZI and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network to push the boundaries of AI in scientific research.
This brain trust includes:
- Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Altman was also recently named to the CZ Biohub Board.
- Regina Barzilay, Distinguished Professor for AI and Health and AI Faculty Lead at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Barzilay was also recently named to CZI’s Scientific Advisory Board.
- Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock and the Co-Founder of Linkedin. Hoffman joined the CZ Biohub Board in 2016.
- Emma Lundberg, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Human Protein Atlas.
- Joelle Pineau, Associate Professor of Computer Science at McGill University and Vice President of AI Research at Meta. Pineau was also recently named to CZI’s Scientific Advisory Board.
- Mike Schroepfer, Founder and Partner of Gigascale Capital, Former CTO of Meta. Schroepfer was also recently named to the CZ Biohub Board.
AI Residency Program
Leading the charge is Theofanis Karaletsos, CZI’s newly appointed Head of AI for Science. Karaletsos, a renowned AI/ML research and science leader, will collaborate with the AI Advisory Group and scientists like Emma Lundberg to launch a unique AI residency program.
This program brings together talented AI/ML researchers from academia to develop foundational AI models and tools. These openly available tools will empower the broader scientific community to unlock new discoveries. The resident-led projects will be instrumental in building virtual cell models – a groundbreaking technology that will allow researchers to delve into the molecular mechanisms of health and disease.
“Enabling AI at scale for life science research will pave the way for new biomedical discoveries,” said Theofanis Karaletsos, Head of Artificial Intelligence for Science at CZI. “I’m excited to collaborate with different teams across CZI and the Biohub Network to expand our AI capabilities.”
CZI: A Force for Scientific Progress
CZI’s commitment to science extends beyond AI. Through grant programs, open-source software development, and collaboration with the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network (San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Imaging Institute), CZI fosters a vibrant research ecosystem. They also partner with leading institutions like Harvard’s Kempner Institute for AI research.