Illumina expands Billion Cell Atlas program with new AI drug developers

Illumina, Inc. announced that the Billion Cell Atlas alliance has added three new member companies, involving AI-based drug developer Formation Bio. As leaders in AI-based drug discovery, design, and advancement, alliance members apply the unprecedented scale of Illumina's genome-wide perturbation information as infrastructure for the next generation of medications.

"We are building the cell atlas to address key bottlenecks across the drug discovery and development continuum," said Rami Mehio, senior vice president and general manager of BioInsight at Illumina. "We are creating the foundational framework to train virtual cell models and solve some of the most fundamental challenges in biology. Together, partners using this unique dataset can have a significant impact in de-risking and accelerating the journey from biological insights to approved drugs."

Introduced in January 2026 with founding participants AstraZeneca, Merck, and Eli Lilly and Company, the Atlas allows consumers to discover and validate new targets, characterize drug and disease mechanisms of action, and explore strength novel indications. Over 350 million cells have been sequenced to information, generating upwards of six petabytes of genomic data. The scale and diversity of the Atlas in the hundreds of disease-relevant and healthy cell types can reveal diseases originate and develop, also may able to reverse their progression.

"Formation Bio's model is to identify and acquire promising medicines already close to or in the clinic, then use AI and technology to develop them faster and more efficiently. A core part of that model is making better asset-selection and indication decisions, especially for first-in-class programs where the evidence is often fragmented," said Benjamine Liu, CEO and co-founder of Formation Bio. "We are excited to leverage the Illumina Billion Cell Atlas to credential therapeutic-area hypotheses and target-indication pairs against a new layer of cell-specific causal biology. Combined with genetics, human biology, translational evidence, and clinical data, these insights can help us choose the right assets, indications, patients, and trial designs and ultimately increase the probability that important new medicines reach patients."

According to Towards Healthcare, the single-cell omics market is projected to experience significant growth, with estimates suggesting the market size will increase from USD 2.62 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 10.06 billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.14% from 2026 to 2035, driven by single-cell omics evolving as a significant device to understand the molecular basis of cellular mechanisms and improve knowledge of various cell states. Single-cell omics allows high-resolution analysis of cellular heterogeneity by capturing epigenomic, transcriptomic, and metabolic signatures at the single-cell level.  Single-cell technology are usally used to study cell advancement, classify rare cell populations, and characterize cellular responses to stimuli. This enables for the identification of subtle but noteworthy differences in gene expression, metabolic activity, and responses to stimuli which are significant for understanding diseases, particularly where rare cell populations drive pathology, like cancer cells or drug-resistant clones. Genetic mutations control gene expression and protein translation in specific cells; the genome, transcriptome, and proteome requirement to be simultaneously analysed within that single cell. Single-cell sequencing inspects the nucleic acid sequence information from individual cells using next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to understand genomic differences and advance insights of the function of a specific cell in its microenvironment.

Transforming drug discovery and development requires biological understanding at scale

For Formation Bio, the Atlas offers insight in the why a drug might work or fail in a perticular patient population. Single-cell perturbation data at scale allows researchers to build more precise models of how candidate drugs ignoration with disease biology, enhacing their ability to classify which patient subgroups are most possible to respond and inform clinical trial design. The Atlas also increasing one of the most consequential decisions in drug advancement choosing which assets to advance and in which indications.

This is specifically significant for first-in-class medicines, where the target biology compelling but healthcare precedent is limited. By integrating cell-state-precise perturbation data with genetic, translational, human, and healthcare evidence, Formation Bio more rigorously credential target-indication pairs, classify the disease contexts and patient populations most such as to respond, and prioritize agendas with the strongest probability of healthcare success.

"The next frontier of AI in biology hinges on the creation of foundational training datasets," said Kyle Farh, vice president of Artificial Intelligence at Illumina. "Up until now, most single cell data has been observational. We aim to change that, and in the process, reimagine what is possible in biology."

About the Illumina Billion Cell Atlas

The Illumina Billion Cell Atlas the worldwide largest genome-driven genetic perturbation dataset is capturing how one billion specific cells respond to genetic changes through CRISPR in the more than 200 disease-relevant cell lines. The program launched in January 2026, and members involves AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Formation Bio, Merck, and two additional AI-based drug discovery partners. It is most comprehensive map of human disease biology upon completion.

About Illumina

Illumina is improving human health by solving the power of the genome. It focus on innovation has established as a worldwide leader in DNA sequencing and array-driven technologies, serving consumer in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Their products are used for applications in the oncology, life sciences, agriculture, reproductive health, and other evolving segments.

A recent report by Towards Healthcare highlights that the single-cell omics market is witnessing growth because single-cell omics techniques have transformed molecular profiling by offering high-resolution insights in the cellular heterogeneity and complexity. Traditional bulk omics strategies average signals from heterogeneous cell populations, therefore obscuring significant cellular nuances. Single-cell omics research allows the analysis of specific cells and reveal diverse cell types, dynamic cellular states, and rare cell populations. These techniques provides unprecedented resolution and sensitivity, allowing investigators to unravel the molecular landscape of specific cells.