NEW YORK – The Arc Institute said Tuesday that it has partnered with 10x Genomics and Ultima Genomics to expand its atlas of single-cell data for use in computational models of biology.
Arc researchers will use 10x's Chromium Flex assays for single-cell sequencing in chemical and genetic perturbation screening and read them out using Ultima's UG 100 sequencing system. The data will grow the Arc Virtual Cell Atlas, a collection of datasets to be used in the training of generative artificial intelligence-based virtual cell models.
Arc researchers will also use UG 100 Solaris Boost, a new high-throughput operating mode currently available under early access, to further increase data output.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"By combining Arc's expertise with 10x and Ultima’s cutting-edge technologies, we will be able to generate high-quality, perturbational single-cell data at scale," Arc Executive Director and Cofounder Silvana Konermann said in a statement. "We're excited to make this resource available to the scientific community so that these datasets can inform the most accurate models possible."
The Arc Virtual Cell Atlas, launched earlier this year, already contains data from more than 300 million cells. "At Arc, we're developing tools that can predict which perturbations would be effective to return a diseased cell to a healthy state," Arc Cofounder and Investigator Patrick Hsu said in a statement. "Instead of the guess-and-check approach that dominates experimental biomedicine today, a predictive 'world model' of the cell could help narrow the focus to the most promising therapeutic targets."
The partnership is the latest AI-based team-up between 10x and Ultima. In February, the two firms partnered with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative on its Billion Cells Project, which also seeks to create datasets to train virtual cell models.
"Emerging AI/machine learning applications such as large-scale perturbation datasets and virtual cells atlases highlight the enabling benefits of our technology and low-cost sequencing," Ultima CEO and Cofounder Gilad Almogy said in a statement.