Biohub teams up with Google DeepMind and the US government to build a universal virtual cell

Biology has a simulation problem. Engineers can model a jet engine down to the bolt before building it, but scientists still mostly learn how a cell reacts to a drug by testing it, one experiment at a time. The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub wants to change that. On October 7, 2026, it expanded its Virtual Biology Initiative to a total of $1.8 billion, bringing in the US government and several of the largest names in tech to help build AI models of living cells. The goal is a “virtual cell”: software that can predict how a real cell behaves when something perturbs it, such as a drug, a mutation, or a disease. Who is putting money in Biohub first committed $500M to the effort in April 2026, then broadened the initiative with outside partners. The US Department of Energy is set to invest more than $500 million over five years to provide technology support. The National Institutes of Health is coordinating work to standardize AI-ready datasets. Its prior funding for that standardization effort exceeds $500 million. On the private side, Meta, Google DeepMind, and Isomorphic Labs contributed $300 million to the initiative. The full roster of partners includes Biohub, Tahoe Therapeutics, Arc Ins...