AWS launches Amazon Bio Discovery to accelerate AI-powered research in life sciences

Key takeaways AI-powered application assisting scientists with drug design paired with lab testing creates a loop where each experiment improves the next. Scientists can access leading AI models, view benchmarks, and use an AI agent to guide experiments.

The application is designed to make AI models more accessible to scientists, not just those with AI and coding skills. With Memorial Sloan Kettering, the application accelerated antibody design for potential pediatric cancer therapies from months to weeks.

Today, AWS announced Amazon Bio Discovery, a new AI-powered application designed to help scientists design and test novel drugs more quickly and confidently. Amazon Bio Discovery gives scientists direct access to a broad catalog of specialized AI models called biological foundation models (bioFMs) that are trained on vast biological datasets.

These models generate and evaluate potential drug molecules, known as candidates, helping scientists accelerate antibody therapies during the early stages of drug discovery. But access alone is not enough.

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With Amazon Bio Discovery, scientists can converse naturally in their preferred terminology with an AI agent—a smart assistant that automates complex tasks—to select the right models for their research goals, optimize the inputs, and evaluate candidates for experimentation.

Scientists can also train models on their prior experimental data to make more accurate predictions. Furthermore, they can easily send candidates to physical labs for synthesis and testing—with results routing back to the application for rapid iteration, creating a lab-in-the-loop experimentation cycle.

Breaking down barriers to AI adoption in drug discovery Over the last several years, progress in generative AI has created an explosion of new machine learning models ranging from predicting the physical structure of proteins to evaluating candidates based on their chemical properties.

While these models show promise, they require coding skills and the ability to manage computing infrastructure. Selecting models alone is challenging because there are dozens of such models, and it’s difficult to benchmark them against each other.

As a result, many scientists struggle to use AI models independently, and computational biologists—the experts who have specialized AI skills that could help them—are in short supply. Taking candidates from computational design to physical synthesis is also complicated.

Data lives in disconnected systems, and scientists must manage multiple lab partners and manually coordinate timelines and pricing.

Amazon Bio Discovery addresses these challenges with three key capabilities: a benchmarked library of AI models and analysis packages, an AI agent that helps researchers design experiments, and integrated lab partners that test the most promising antibody candidates and route results back to the scientists.

This feedback loop improves the next round of design. Andy Jassy explains how going back to the starting line drives reinvention at Amazon In his annual letter to shareholders, Jassy stresses that you need to be willing to start over to build better experiences for customers.

"AI agents make powerful scientific capabilities accessible to all drug researchers, not just those with computational expertise," said Rajiv Chopra, vice president of AWS Healthcare AI and Life Sciences. "These AI systems can help scientists design drug molecules, coordinate testing, learn from results, and get smarter with each experiment.

This combination of cutting-edge AI and the robust, secure infrastructure AWS has built for regulated industries allows scientists to accelerate antibody discovery in ways that weren't possible before." Amazon Bio Discovery is built on the same foundation that the pharmaceutical industry already trusts.

Today, 19 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies use AWS to power their most sensitive research workloads. Amazon Bio Discovery brings enterprise-grade scale, performance, privacy, and security to researchers across all pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic research organizations.

It provides complete data isolation and gives customers ownership over all their proprietary data and intellectual property. AI agent helps scientists set up and run AI-powered drug discovery workflows.

Use AI in research with ease and confidence Amazon Bio Discovery provides scientists with a broad catalog of AI models for drug discovery, including leading open-source and commercial models from partners like Apheris and Boltz, with Biohub and Profluent coming soon.

More importantly, an AI agent walks scientists through every step—from designing experiments to selecting the most promising AI-designed candidates for lab testi