Patrick Hsu, Assistant Professor of BioEngineering at UC Berkeley, along with a a team of researchers from UC Berkeley, Arc Institute, UCSF, Stanford University and NVIDIA, have developed a machine learning model trained on the DNA of over 100,000 species across the entire tree of life. The model, called Evo 2, can identify patterns in gene sequences across disparate organisms that experimental researchers would typically need years to uncover. Hsu played a key role in the development of Evo 2, the largest AI model in biology to date, marking a major breakthrough in biomolecular sciences. As the Arc Institute co-founder and co-senior author, Hsu noted that “Evo 2 has a generalist understanding of the tree of life that’s useful for a multitude of tasks, from predicting disease-causing mutations to designing potential code for artificial life. We’re excited to see what the research community builds on top of these foundation models.”
March 5, 2025