FrontierThe story, in brief
AI learns nature’s code: Allen Institute, UW and Fred Hutch launch $95M open science initiative
$95M. Three Seattle institutions are training AI to design proteins and genes that don't exist in nature — and releasing everything open.
The KeyNews take
Why it matters
A major open-science push to train foundational models on biological design, funded at scale and committed to public release. This shifts the frontier of AI capability toward protein/gene design while establishing a model for open-weight scientific AI.
The key facts
6 to know$95M funding commitment
Allen Institute, University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center collaboration
Focus: training AI models for protein and gene design
Open-science approach — results shared freely
Application domain: medicine and materials development
Published September 2026
Go to the source
GeekWiregeekwire.com
Publisher excerpt: Three of Seattle's top scientific institutions are launching a nearly $95 million research initiative that will generate data and train AI models to design proteins and genes that don't exist in nature — sharing the results freely to help others develop new medicines and materials.