VirtualCell: A Foundation Model for Cell and Tissue State Across Health and Disease

VirtualCell aims to realize the long-standing vision to create a digital twin-like replica of a cell, enabling insights into the complex cellular processes that occur in health and disease. By leveraging recent advances in high-throughput genomic sequencing, imaging, and generative AI, the project will develop a multimodal foundation model trained on extensive single-cell multi-omics and spatial data. This model will provide a comprehensive representation of cellular states and interactions, which will be fine-tuned on disease samples from biomedical partners for various clinical applications.  

The implications for medical research are significant. Through this advanced cellular modeling, VirtualCell is poised to drive breakthroughs in disease pathology, drug design, and patient stratification, ultimately driving advancements in biotechnology applications and our understanding of complex diseases.