EvolutionaryScale Raises $142M, Unveils 98B-Parameter ESM3 AI for Protein Generation with AWS, Nvidia

Jun 25, 2024, 12:38 PM

EvolutionaryScale, a new AI research lab founded by former Meta scientists, has emerged from stealth with the announcement of ESM3, a generative language model for programming biology. ESM3, which boasts 98 billion parameters, is designed to simulate 500 million years of evolutionary processes to generate new proteins. The model is trained on variable masking ratios and includes work on alignment. The company has raised $142 million in seed funding, led by Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Lux Capital, with backing from Amazon, AWS, and Nvidia. ESM3 is the largest biological language model to date and has demonstrated the ability to generate new fluorescent proteins. A pared-back version of ESM3 will be available for free to academics. EvolutionaryScale aims to revolutionize the field of proteomics by leveraging AI to explore protein functions and structures, potentially advancing healthcare and drug discovery.