Virtual Cell Challenge: Toward a Turing test for the virtual cell

Yusuf H Roohani; Tony J Hua; Po-Yuan Tung; Lexi R Bounds; Feiqiao B Yu; Alexander Dobin; Noam Teyssier; Abhinav Adduri; Alden Woodrow; Brian S Plosky; Reshma Mehta; Benjamin Hsu; Jeremy Sullivan; Chiara Ricci-Tam; Nianzhen Li; Julia Kazaks; Luke A Gilbert; Silvana Konermann; Patrick D Hsu; Hani Goodarzi; Dave P Burke

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.008

Virtual Cell Challenge: Toward a Turing test for the virtual cell

Cell. 2025 Jun 26;188(13):3370-3374. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.008.

Authors

Yusuf H Roohani¹, Tony J Hua¹, Po-Yuan Tung¹, Lexi R Bounds¹, Feiqiao B Yu¹, Alexander Dobin¹, Noam Teyssier¹, Abhinav Adduri¹, Alden Woodrow¹, Brian S Plosky¹, Reshma Mehta¹, Benjamin Hsu¹, Jeremy Sullivan¹, Chiara Ricci-Tam¹, Nianzhen Li¹, Julia Kazaks¹, Luke A Gilbert², Silvana Konermann³, Patrick D Hsu⁴, Hani Goodarzi⁵, Dave P Burke¹

Affiliations

¹ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
² Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
⁴ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ Arc Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: hani@arcinstitute.org.

PMID: 40578317
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.008

Abstract

Virtual cells are an emerging frontier at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biology. A key goal of these cell state models is predicting cellular responses to perturbations. The Virtual Cell Challenge is being established to catalyze progress toward this goal. This recurring and open benchmark competition from the Arc Institute will provide an evaluation framework, purpose-built datasets, and a venue for accelerating model development.

MeSH terms

Artificial Intelligence*
Computer Simulation
Humans
Models, Biological*
User-Computer Interface