Chip designer Nvidia launched more than two dozen generative AI microservices to drive healthcare innovation Monday afternoon.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced in a keynote at the company’s annual GTC conference that the 25 genAI microservices will further empower healthcare organizations — namely pharma companies — when it comes to drug discovery, medical imaging, genomics, language and digital human initiatives.
Nvidia said its suite of healthcare microservices will include enhanced Nvidia NIM AI models and workflows, expanded Nvidia BioNeMo microservices and the integration of NIM and BioNeMo into Amazon Web Services’ health suite.
The company is also partnering with Cadence Pharmaceuticals, expanding its collaboration with Microsoft Azure and working with Johnson & Johnson MedTech to scale AI for surgery. Additionally, with Nvidia’s support, the Novo Nordisk Foundation announced a sovereign AI Innovation Center to develop genAI across Denmark.
The announcement comes weeks after Nvidia briefly surpassed the $2 trillion mark for its market capitalization as investor interest around AI and its potential have reached record heights.
This also isn’t Nvidia’s first foray into healthcare.
Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with AI-focused biotech Deepcell to expand its use of generative AI in cell biology.
In November, Nvidia announced a strategic AI research collaboration with Roche’s Genentech to boost drug discovery and development. Months before, the company made a $50 million investment in Recursion Pharma, taking a 4% stake in the firm.
J&J MedTech, unpacked
By collaborating with J&J MedTech, Nvidia is bringing its innovative technology into the operating room.
This partnership is centered around crystallizing the concept of “digital surgery,” with J&J MedTech pursuing a goal of Nvidia-supported analytics and AI-powered applications driven by device, patient and surgical data.
Given J&J MedTech’s surgical presence — its technology is in 80% of operating rooms around the world — Nvidia will be able to equip hospitals with its cloud-like platform.
Its IGX edge computing platform and Holoscan edge AI platform for building medical devices can connect to sensors in the operating room and utilize AI capabilities in an intraoperative way in real-time. Over-the-air upgradeable and agnostic to any sensors, the platform can connect with other health information systems.
Cadence collaboration
As it relates to the pharma industry, Nvidia is integrating its BioNeMo microservices for AI-guided molecular discovery into Cadence Therapeutics’ Orion molecular design platform to accelerate drug discovery efforts.
The company indicated that BioNeMo’s microservices like the MoIMIM generative chemistry model and the AlphaFold-2 model for protein folding, could bolster Orion’s capabilities.
The company said more than 100 companies will be integrating BioNeMo into their respective drug discovery workflows and that almost 50 application providers are currently using its healthcare microservices. This list includes notable pharma and biotech companies like Amgen, Astellas Pharma, Iambic Therapeutics and Recursion.
“Our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers require access to accelerated resources for molecular simulation,” said Anthony Nicholls, CVP at Cadence, in a statement. “By leveraging BioNeMo microservices, researchers can generate molecules that are optimized according to scientists’ specific needs.”
