Bioptimus raises $35M seed round to develop AI foundational models focused on biology

[ad_1]

is a new generic AI startup based in Paris. but what makes bioptimus Interestingly, the plan is to apply everything we have collectively learned about AI models over the past few years with a narrow, specialized focus on biology.

The reason for creating startups focused exclusively on biology is that access to training data in this field is not so easy. While OpenAI is slowly moving away from web crawling Licensing deals with content publishersBioptimus is facing various data challenges as it has to deal with sensitive clinical data that is not publicly available.

And like other AI startups, Bioptimus is going to be a capital-intensive startup as it will train its models on expensive GPUs and hire talented researchers. This is why the startup is raising a $35 million seed round Sofinova Partners, BPIFrance Large Venture Fund First, Cathay Innovation, Headline, Hummingbird, NJF Capital, Ovkin, Top Harvest Capital and Xavier Neel also participated in the funding round.

Bioptimus isn’t coming out of nowhere. At the helm of the company, Jean-Philippe Vert will serve as co-founder and executive chairman in a non-operational role. In his daily work, he is the Chief Research & Development Officer OkFrench biotech unicorn that tries to discover new drugs and improve diagnostics through AI.

Rodolfo Genton, CTO of Bioptimus, has more experience in artificial intelligence, as he was a senior research scientist at Google. Several co-founders are also former Google DeepMind researchers.

Image Credit: bioptimus

As part of Ovkin’s work for top biopharmaceuticals, Ovkin has collected multimodal patient data through partnerships with leading academic hospitals around the world. Bioptimus will leverage this unique dataset to train its underlying model.

A moonshot project from Ovkin

Bioptimus can also be considered a kind of spin-off company of Ovkin – or a so-called moonshot project. But why didn’t Ovkin decide to work on a basic model in-house? Creating new AI models is such a difficult task that it makes more sense to create a separate entity.

“Building Biology [foundational models] It’s not part of Ovkin’s roadmap, but Ovkin supports a company like Bioptimus and is interested in partnering with them. training on a large scale [foundational models] “Significant resources are required in terms of data volume, computing power and breadth of data modalities that are easier to unlock as a distinct entity,” Vert told TechCrunch. “As a ‘pure player’ in the basic model, Bioptimus is better placed to do this.”

The startup has also signed a partnership with Amazon Web Services. It seems that the company’s models will be trained in Amazon’s data centers. Now that Bioptimus is well-funded, it’s time to work on the AI ​​model and see what the biotech research community can do with it.

“Ultimately, the AI ​​we are creating will improve disease diagnosis, precision medicine, and help create new biomolecules for medical or environmental use,” Wert said.

[ad_2]

Thanks For Reading

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top
Global Social Media Outage: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger – Resolved! Cal.com: Know how this productivity tool can keep you on track at work; it is free for individuals Amazon is offering a whopping 26 pct discount on iPhone 14 Plus: Check offers here iPhone 15 price drop: Get a huge 11% discount on Amazon now – check deal NASA captures the most powerful black hole eruption ever recorded! Check details here. Private US moon lander Odysseus enters lunar orbit en route to historic touchdown attempt Want to buy the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra? Check out this huge Amazon discount Grab 11 pct discount on iPhone 15! Check deals and whopping exchange offer on Amazon NASA calls for volunteers to join simulated one-year Mars surface mission iPhone 14 price drop: Huge 15% discount now on Flipkart; check Rs. 42000 exchange offer too