Revolutionizing Biology with AI: EvolutionaryScale’s Ambitious Plans
In a significant development, EvolutionaryScale, a relatively new startup, has secured a massive tranche of cash to build AI models that can generate novel proteins for scientific research. The company has raised $142 million in a seed round led by ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and Lux Capital, with participation from Amazon and NVentures, Nvidia’s corporate venture arm.
A Frontier Model for Biology: ESM3
EvolutionaryScale has released ESM3, an AI model that it describes as a ‘frontier model’ for biology. This model can create proteins for use in drug discovery and materials science. According to Alexander Rives, co-founder and chief scientist of EvolutionaryScale, "ESM3 takes a step toward a future of biology where AI is a tool to engineer from first principles, the way we engineer structures, machines, and microchips and write computer programs."
Background: From Meta’s AI Research Lab to EvolutionaryScale
Rives, along with Tom Sercu and Sal Candido, began developing generative AI models to explore proteins while at Meta’s AI research lab, FAIR, in 2019. After their team was disbanded, Rives, Sercu and Candido left Meta to continue building on the work they’d started.
The Importance of Protein Generation
Characterizing proteins can reveal the mechanisms of a disease, including ways to slow it or reverse it. Creating new proteins can lead to entirely new classes of drugs, tools and therapeutics. However, the current process for designing proteins in the lab is costly, both from a computational and human resource standpoint.
Designing Proteins: A Challenging Task
Designing a protein entails coming up with a structure that could plausibly perform a task inside the body or a product, then finding a protein sequence — the sequence of amino acids that make up a protein — likely to ‘fold’ into the structure. Proteins must correctly fold into three-dimensional shapes in order to function properly.
ESM3: A Breakthrough in Protein Generation
ESM3 is a significant breakthrough in protein generation. This AI model can create novel proteins by predicting their sequences and structures. According to Rives, "As language models scale, they develop an understanding of the underlying principles of biology, and discover biological structure and function."
Ambitious Plans: Scaling Up ESM3
EvolutionaryScale has ambitious plans to scale up ESM3. The company aims to use this model to generate novel proteins for various applications, including drug discovery and materials science. According to Rives, "We find that as language models scale, they develop an understanding of the underlying principles of biology, and discover biological structure and function."
Deep-Pocketed Investors: A Boost for EvolutionaryScale
Having deep-pocketed investors like ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Lux Capital is surely going to help EvolutionaryScale in its ambitious plans. As Rives notes, "We’re thrilled to have such a strong support from our investors, which will enable us to accelerate our research and development efforts."
Conclusion: Revolutionizing Biology with AI
EvolutionaryScale’s $142 million raise and the release of ESM3 are significant developments in the field of artificial intelligence and biology. The company’s ambitious plans to use this model for novel protein generation have the potential to revolutionize various fields, including drug discovery and materials science.
Related Topics:
- AI
- Biotech & Health
- EvolutionaryScale
- Funding
- Fundraising
- Generative AI
- Health
- Protein
- Startup
- Startups
Author Bio:
Kyle Wiggers is a senior reporter at TechCrunch with a special interest in artificial intelligence. His writing has appeared in VentureBeat and Digital Trends, as well as a range of gadget blogs including Android Police, Android Authority, Droid-Life, and XDA-Developers.
