Thermofisher.com Thermofisher.com

Our Stories

Thermo Fisher’s growing AI ecosystem aims to transform how science is done

By Terri Somers,
Senior Manager, Global PR and StoryLab

As companies in virtually every global business sector contemplate how to integrate AI to drive efficiencies and innovation in an increasingly complex, data-rich world, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s recent announcements of several AI-related collaborations show how a global life sciences company is making it happen.

Thermo Fisher announced during the recent 44th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference that it would collaborate with NVIDIA, which builds the engines that power modern computing and AI. Meanwhile, TetraScience, which organizes and prepares scientific data across disparate equipment and vendors so that AI can decipher and use it, announced at the conference that it, too, would collaborate with Thermo Fisher.

It was the fourth AI-related collaboration for Thermo Fisher announced in as many months. The push comes as life sciences labs generate unprecedented volumes of data, straining traditional, manual research methods.

Invitrogen Attune CytPix Flow Cytometer Invitrogen Attune CytPix Flow Cytometer

“Artificial intelligence coupled with laboratory automation will transform how scientific work is performed,” said Gianluca Pettiti, executive vice president at Thermo Fisher, a global provider of scientific instruments, reagents and services. “By combining Thermo Fisher’s leadership in laboratory technologies with NVIDIA’s digital and AI solutions, we can help customers work faster, improve accuracy and get more value out of each experiment, ultimately accelerating discoveries that can have significant human impact.”

 

The company’s vision is to equip laboratories with next-generation tools and technology that can be seamlessly integrated, helping to democratize access to enhanced capabilities and enable smarter, connected laboratory environments. The current reality is that in most laboratories, scientists still perform many tasks manually, from designing experiments and setting up instrumentation to preparing samples, running instruments and interpreting results.

 

Each of Thermo Fisher’s new AI-related collaborators provides distinct but complementary technology to help fulfill its vision. Together, the collaborations extend across the full scientific workflow, from experimental design and data generation to analysis and decision-making.

 

In that ecosystem, NVIDIA delivers the high-performance computing foundation needed to run advanced AI models directly on scientific data generated by Thermo Fisher instruments. NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI infrastructure will be integrated into Thermo Fisher’s scientific instrumentation and laboratory software.

 

On Oct. 16, Thermo Fisher announced that it would collaborate with San Francisco-based OpenAI, which enables natural-language interaction with data and systems, to accelerate scientific innovation, enhance productivity and reduce complexity. The company said OpenAI is initially being embedded to advance the use of AI in its clinical research and drug development workflows, enabling customers to get medicines to patients faster and more cost-effectively.

 

Cambridge, Mass.-based TetraScience’s cloud-based technology will harmonize data generated by diverse technologies, standardizing it so it can be understood and analyzed by AI.

In a Sept. 30 announcement, BenchSci, a Toronto-based company that uses published scientific studies to help scientists choose the right lab tools and experiments to advance their research, said it would also collaborate with Thermo Fisher.

One example of how AI could be applied is in instruments such as Invitrogen Attune CytPix Flow Cytometer, which scientists use to image, visualize and analyze cells in critical applications like cell therapy, oncology and immunology. Coupled with AI technologies, the instrument could help interpret research objectives, guide data analysis, highlight meaningful patterns, and offer recommendations.

“We are entering the era of ‘lab-in-the-loop’ science, where the trinity of AI, agents and instruments will be able to scale scientific discovery at industrial pace,” said Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at NVIDIA, based in Santa Clara, Calif. “Working with Thermo Fisher, we are building the fundamental infrastructure of autonomous labs, creating a powerful research and discovery flywheel accelerating the pace of life sciences breakthroughs.”

NVIDIA's DGX Spark NVIDIA's DGX Spark