Google invests $300M in Zuckerberg's virtual cell project

google deepmind, meta, and ai drug discovery startup isomorphic labs are jointly investing $300 million into biohub, a nonprofit biomedical research organization founded by mark zuckerberg and his wife, priscilla chan. the funding is part of a $1.8 billion initiative to build ai datasets that could allow researchers to 'ask, predict, and answer biological questions digitally.' biohub aims to combat diseases through the creation of a 'virtual cell' that researchers can use to carry out simulations. the us department of energy will invest more than $500 million over the next five years, while the national institutes of health will contribute datasets, repositories, and knowledge bases stemming from previous federal investment totalling over $500 million. this investment could dramatically accelerate scientific discovery by enabling scientists to perform experiments digitally.