ROCKVILLE, Md., May 5, 2025 -- Psomagen Inc., a multiomics service laboratory serving academic, pharma, biotech, and clinical customers, will join the Billion Cells Project led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). The Billion Cells Project aims to develop a landmark single-cell dataset of one billion cells that will be used to train new AI models to advance researchers' understanding of cellular behavior and gene function. Psomagen has begun providing services to participating researchers in April. The project includes collaborations with several other technology partners, including Ultima Genomics, 10x Genomics and Scale Biosciences.
Psomagen Selected as Key Service Provider to Accelerate Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Billion Cells Project
Su Hong, CEO of Psomagen, says, "This project represents a transformative step in biomedical research, enabling the identification of novel therapeutic targets and guiding drug development with unparalleled precision. By leveraging AI-powered analysis on vast single-cell datasets, we aim to accelerate the discovery of new ways to restore diseased cells to health. Psomagen is proud to contribute to this groundbreaking initiative that bridges biology and artificial intelligence, ultimately advancing human health."
Psomagen will produce single-cell data as part of the Billion Cells Project to feed AI models trained on one of the largest computing systems dedicated to nonprofit life sciences research in the world. These powerful models for predicting and designing cellular behavior will help scientists understand the underpinnings of human health and disease, which in turn can speed up the development of drugs, diagnostics and other therapies.
Matt Kramer, V.P. of Marketing, Business Development, & Partnerships for Psomagen, indicated, "Psomagen is honored to have been selected to execute this ambitious plan to generate the massive amount of single-cell data that will be available to researchers across so many disciplines and disease states. CZI's mission is in full alignment with our services and goal to bring multiomic data to researchers in the most cost-effective manner."
Psomagen will utilize Ultima Genomics UG 100 high throughput NGS sequencer, for which Psomagen recently announced it had become an Ultima Certified Service Provider. Psomagen has been offering complete workflow single-cell services since it became a 10x Genomics CSP, and adding the UG 100 will help reduce costs of counting applications by 25% per 1M reads. The capabilities will add to Psomagen's Single Cell and Spatial Center of Excellence at its Rockville, MD facility, supporting spatial biology methods like the 10x Visium HD platform. In addition to lower running costs, the UG 100 offers rapid run times compared to other high throughput sequencing instruments.
Jonah Cool, Vice President of Scientific Strategy and Partnerships at CZI noted, "A key facet of the Billion Cells Project is standardizing data generation and processing. This wouldn't be possible without the collaborative effort of partners like Psomagen that are committed to accelerating scientific discovery by helping to scaling up single-cell sequencing data generation and offering their services to enable data generation to be quick, cost effective and increasingly consistent. The data generated from this project is critical to building CZI's AI-based virtual cell model that will allow researchers to predict and understand cellular behavior."
Psomagen will use the UG 100 to process hundreds of millions of cells to support a group of leading researchers in the effort to generate an unprecedented one billion cell dataset to fuel rapid progress in AI model development in biology. The data produced at Psomagen will transform into comprehensive resources for the research community, such as mapping genetic perturbations across diverse cell and tissue types.
"We look forward to supporting this ambitious undertaking and its unique approach to scaling and standardizing scientific outputs for AI and machine learning to inform human biology," says Matt Kramer.
About Psomagen
Psomagen, Inc., formerly Macrogen U.S.A., is a North American integrative omics solutions and contract laboratory services provider. The company makes cutting-edge technology and data analysis accessible to the academic, pharma, biotech and clinical markets. With both CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited facilities, its team delivers the highest-quality multiomics data using best-in-class DNA, RNA, and protein analysis systems. In conjunction with its bioinformatics capabilities, Psomagen offers a path to insights that is both simple and affordable. Learn more at psomagen.com.
About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society's toughest challenges - from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our local communities. Our mission is to build a better future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.
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