IMBA welcomes new AI research institute at the Vienna BioCenter
The Vienna BioCenter is already now Central Europe’s largest life science cluster, with currently 140 research groups investigating questions ranging from biomedicine to evolution and structural biology. This cluster of life science excellence will now grow even larger: As announced on Wednesday, a new research institute will be established at the Vienna BioCenter and use AI research to tackle biomedical questions. The AITHYRA-Institute, founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, will be supported with 150 million Euro from the German based non-profit Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation during the initial twelve years of its operations. With the AITHYRA-Institute, the third institute founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences will be established at the Vienna BioCenter, joining IMBA and the GMI.
As the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the AITHYRA stakeholders announced, Michael Bronstein, currently DeepMind Professor at the University of Oxford, will be the institute’s founding scientific director. The AITHYRA-institute will start its operation from the MarxBox, located at the heart of the Vienna BioCenter. Later, the institute will move to a purpose-built institute at the Vienna BioCenter, funded by the Austrian Ministry of Research and the City of Vienna.
Research at the AITHYRA-Institute will strive for a deeper understanding of biomedical questions, to enable quicker and more reliable diagnoses and support the development of new therapies for currently incurable diseases. At the institute, researchers in the fields of AI and the life sciences will work closely together from the outset to integrate both perspectives into the ongoing research.
IMBA director Elly Tanaka welcomed the news. “AI is not just a buzzword, it has already revolutionized research in the life sciences toward new discoveries, worldwide and here at the Vienna BioCenter. AI is crucial for interpreting the massive amounts of data that are becoming available. An institute focused on AI in biomedicine placed here on campus is a game changer for Vienna and all of Austria. We are so excited by this next chapter in biomedical research.”
“All of us at IMBA, and indeed the Vienna BioCenter, are excited to welcome the AITHYRA-Institute”, says Markus Kiess, IMBA’s administrative director. “The institute’s dual focus on AI and biomedicine are extremely fortunate for the science pursued on campus, and I’m convinced that the collaborative and creative nature of this campus will be the ideal environment for the new institute.”