A biology lab without test tubes? Sooner than you think, says Arc's Patrick Hsu.

A cross post from CrazyStupidTech.

Patrick Hsu co-founded the Arc Institute in 2021, quickly raised more than $650 million, and now, at only 31, has become an old hand in the exploding world of digital biology. Arc has a simple mission: It wants to rethink and speed up how ideas go from concept to implementation in biology using computers, AI and other digital technologies.

Arc has gotten particular notice for its work developing a virtual laboratory known as Evo in partnership with NVIDIA, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCSF. It’s the largest AI model ever trained in the domain of biology, a virtual lab without test tubes, Hsu said. He said it’s too soon to use it as a foolproof drug development or diagnostic tool. But it will be sooner than you think, he said.

Venture capitalists are pouring money into digital biology today. A year ago Xaira Therapeutics launched with $1 billion. Rounds in excess of $100 million for companies like Inceptive, which we wrote about in January, are no longer uncommon. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is working to radically slash government-funded university research.

So I wanted to hear what Hsu had to say about how far Arc and digital biology have come and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead. Here’s the link to the full story at CrazyStupidTech. https://crazystupidtech.com/2025/04/07/a-biology-lab-without-test-tubes-sooner-than-you-think-says-arcs-patrick-hsu/