In partnership with Nvidia and Ultima Genomics, Scale Biosciences has launched the 100 Million Cell Challenge, a first-of-its-kind program focused on supporting single cell genomics projects around the world.
“The 100 Million Cell Challenge represents a pivotal moment in single cell genomics research,” Giovanna Prout, Scale Bio’s president and CEO, said. “By bringing together researchers from various disciplines and providing them with advanced technology from Scale Bio and our collaborators, we aim to catalyze new discoveries that will shape the future of precision medicine, further our understanding of complex biological systems, and fuel the explosion of generative AI that is being leveraged in biology.”
Researchers are invited to submit proposals for large-scale projects with the goal of collectively analyzing 100 million or more cells across diverse biological systems and research areas. The minimum project size is one million cells with no maximum limit. “We’re excited to support the ‘100 Million Cell Challenge’ with our sequencing technology,” said Gilad Almogy, Ultima Genomics’ CEO. He noted further that the initiative “aligns perfectly with our mission to enable researchers to generate and access genomic information at scale.”
Selected projects will also have early access to Quantum Scale, Scale Bio’s newest single cell RNA sequencing technology workflow which is capable of processing up to two million cells per run. The initiative will also offer subsidized costs for library preparation and sequencing services as well as advanced data analysis support from Nvidia.
“Effectively training foundation models requires an immense amount of data. The dramatic increase in high-resolution single cell experiments from this project will help significantly impact translational research,” said George Vacek, global head of genomics alliances at Nvidia. “With Nvidia GPU-powered analysis, researchers can rapidly gain meaningful insights from data, accelerating scientific discovery.”
Researchers interested in participating can submit their project proposals up until October 15, 2024. The partners will evaluate projects on a rolling basis. Selected projects will be announced at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in November 2024.
Ronan Chaligne, PhD, director of the Single Cell Innovation Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, emphasized the importance of increased scale in single cell studies: “The ability to analyze millions of cells in a single experiment is a game-changer” allowing scientists “detect rare cell populations, understand cellular heterogeneity at an unprecedented level, and potentially uncover entirely new biological phenomena,” he noted. The 100 Million Cell Challenge “will accelerate our understanding of complex diseases and lead to novel therapeutic approaches.”
