Illumina's 'Billion Cell Atlas' could change how we find new medicines
Illumina just kicked off the Billion Cell Atlas, a massive project using AI to speed up drug discovery.
Over the next three years, they'll analyze 5 billion cells—starting with one billion from over 200 disease-related cell types, including those linked to cancer and immune disorders.
A data mountain: 20 petabytes every year
The Atlas uses Illumina's tech to study millions of cells at once, producing a whopping 20 petabytes of genetic data each year.
All this info gets crunched in the cloud to see how tweaking any of our 20,000 genes affects different cell types.
Big pharma is on board
Pharma giants like Merck, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly are already tapping into this dataset. They're using it to train smarter AI models, and Merck is building virtual cell models for more precise treatments.
It's also the first big move from Illumina's new BioInsight division, aiming to make drug discovery faster and more accurate.