Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Joins Scale Bio's '100 Million Cell Challenge' to Accelerate Single Cell Genomics Research

For Media
Gwen Gordon, gwen@gwengordonpr.com

For Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Leah Duran, lduran@chanzuckerberg.com

Scale Biosciences (Scale Bio), a leader in innovative and scalable single cell analysis solutions, today announced that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has joined as a partner in the groundbreaking '100 Million Cell Challenge.' CZI will fully subsidize support for 50 million cells' worth of awarded projects. This partnership comes on the heels of an overwhelming response to the challenge, with researchers pledging to analyze over 100 million cells within days of the initial announcement.

The '100 Million Cell Challenge,' launched last month, aims to push the boundaries of single cell genomics research by encouraging large-scale projects across diverse biological systems. With the support of CZI and other program collaborators, Ultima Genomics and NVIDIA, the initiative is poised to make an even greater impact on the scientific community, helping to increase our understanding of complex biological systems and catalyze new discoveries, from basic research to translational medicine.

"Scale Bio's visionary '100 Million Cell Challenge' aligns with our efforts to support the single cell research community and create foundational resources that accelerate science," said Jonah Cool, Cell Science Senior Program Officer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. "We're excited to support scientists to participate in this groundbreaking challenge and to make this research publicly available on Chan Zuckerberg Cell by Gene Discover, a tool we built that allows researchers to explore and draw new insights from cellular data." CZI will also use this data to contribute to a knowledge base for building AI-powered virtual cells to help scientists explore the molecular underpinnings of human health and disease.

Giovanna Prout, CEO of Scale Bio, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership: "CZI's commitment to this challenge not only validates the importance of large-scale single cell studies, it also significantly expands the scope of what researchers can achieve. Through the 100 million cell challenge, Scale Bio and our collaborators hope to catalyze discoveries that could reshape precision medicine and our understanding of complex biological systems."

The scientific community has responded with overwhelming interest, submitting 40 projects spanning a wide spectrum of research disciplines. The submitted projects demonstrate the breadth and depth of potential applications for large-scale single cell analysis. Researchers have proposed studies ranging from creating comprehensive atlases of various organ systems to investigating cellular heterogeneity in disease states and exploring cross-species comparisons in regenerative processes.

The '100 Million Cell Challenge' is enabled by Scale Bio's new QuantumScale technology, a single cell RNA sequencing solution capable of processing up to 2 million cells per run. This new workflow was designed to empower researchers to pursue ambitious, large-scale single cell omics projects by offering unparalleled library preparation efficiency, top notch data quality, and low costs.

The challenge is continuing to accept proposals until October 15, 2024, at midnight PDT. Projects proposing to analyze 1 million cells or more are eligible for consideration. Selected projects will be announced at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting in November 2024.

To provide more information about the '100 Million Cell Challenge,' Scale Bio will host a live web broadcast featuring representatives from collaborating partners. This event will offer researchers an opportunity to learn more about the challenge, the application process and how projects will be selected. To register for the live web broadcast at 11:30 am PDT on September 24, 2024, please visit bit.ly/100MCell-Webcast.

For more information about the '100 Million Cell Challenge' and to submit a proposal, visit scale.bio/100MillionCells.

About Scale Biosciences

At Scale Bio, we are committed to accelerating scientific breakthroughs by providing innovative single cell omics solutions that redefine accessibility, flexibility, and scalability, empowering researchers to unlock the full potential of single cell omics. Leveraging our core massively parallelized single cell barcoding technology, we offer a range of advanced workflow solutions that maximize insights delivered with every experiment and sample type, allowing scientists to generate more data, analyze more samples, and explore more omics, cost efficiently and with unprecedented ease. Founded by scientists and technologists with experience across a range of multiomics disciplines, Scale Bio has attracted financing from leading life sciences tools investors including ARCH Venture Partners, BNG01, and Tao Capital. Scale Bio is headquartered in San Diego, Calif. Visit scale.bio to learn more.

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 more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.

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