Virtual Cell Challenge: Toward a Turing test for the virtual cell

Yusuf H Roohani¹, Tony J Hua¹, Po-Yuan Tung¹, Lexi R Bounds¹, Feiqiao B Yu¹, Alexander Dobin¹, Noam Teyssier¹, Abhinav Adduri¹, Alden Woodrow¹, Brian S Plosky¹, Reshma Mehta¹, Benjamin Hsu¹, Jeremy Sullivan¹, Chiara Ricci-Tam¹, Nianzhen Li¹, Julia Kazaks¹, Luke A Gilbert², Silvana Konermann³, Patrick D Hsu⁴, Hani Goodarzi⁵, Dave P Burke¹

Affiliations

¹ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
² Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁴ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: hani@arcinstitute.org.

PMID: 40578317
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.008

Virtual Cell Challenge: Toward a Turing test for the virtual cell

Yusuf H Roohani et al. Cell. 2025.

. 2025 Jun 26;188(13):3370-3374.

doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.008.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
² Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁴ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: hani@arcinstitute.org.

PMID: 40578317
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.008

Abstract

Virtual cells are an emerging frontier at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biology. A key goal of these cell state models is predicting cellular responses to perturbations. The Virtual Cell Challenge is being established to catalyze progress toward this goal. This recurring and open benchmark competition from the Arc Institute will provide an evaluation framework, purpose-built datasets, and a venue for accelerating model development.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests D.P.B. is a Google Advisor. H.G. is a cofounder of Exai Bio, Tahoe Therapeutics, and Therna Therapeutics; serves on the board of directors at Exai Bio; and is a scientific advisory board member for Verge Genomics and Deep Forest Biosciences. P.D.H. is a cofounder of Monet AI, Terrain Biosciences, and Stylus Medicine; serves on the board of directors at Stylus Medicine; is a board observer at EvolutionaryScale and Terrain Biosciences; is a scientific advisory board member at Arbor Biosciences and VedaBio; and is an advisor to NFDG, Varda Space, and Vial Health. L.A.G. is a cofounder of nChroma Bio and a scientific advisory board member of Myllia Biotechnology.

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Virtual Cell Challenge: Toward a Turing test for the virtual cell

Affiliations

Virtual Cell Challenge: Toward a Turing test for the virtual cell

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources