David Baker创立的AI制药公司扔出重磅炸弹：最大规模单细胞扰动测序数据集，支持虚拟细胞研究

Core Viewpoint - Xaira Therapeutics, an AI drug discovery company, has raised $1 billion in seed funding and aims to revolutionize drug discovery through advanced AI technologies [2] Group 1: Company Overview - Xaira Therapeutics was founded in April 2024 and has a distinguished leadership team, including Nobel laureates and former executives from major pharmaceutical companies [2] - The company has released the largest publicly available Perturb-seq dataset, named X-Atlas/Orion, which supports virtual cell research and enhances drug discovery predictions [3][4] Group 2: Dataset Details - The X-Atlas/Orion dataset includes 8 million cells and covers all protein-coding genes in humans, with over 16,000 unique molecular identifiers from single-cell deep sequencing [4][8] - Perturb-seq technology used in this dataset allows for the simultaneous reading of CRISPR sgRNA genetic perturbations and transcriptomes, revealing dose-dependent genetic effects [4][9] Group 3: Technological Innovations - The FiCS Perturb-seq platform developed by Xaira Therapeutics enables scalable production of perturbation sequencing data, overcoming previous limitations in data generation [8][11] - The platform demonstrates high sensitivity and minimal batch effects, accurately capturing transcriptional changes due to genetic perturbations [8] Group 4: Research Implications - The release of X-Atlas/Orion addresses the challenges of data generation scalability and standardization, facilitating the development of next-generation foundational models in life sciences [11] - The dataset will be shared under a non-commercial license to promote open collaboration in the biotechnology sector, with potential commercial partnerships available [12] Group 5: Future Directions - Xaira Therapeutics plans to expand data generation to include induced pluripotent stem cells and in vivo animal models, aiming for broader applications in AI-driven virtual cell development [20]