Royal DSM, a global science-based company in health, nutrition and sustainable living along with TU Delft, one of the top global universities in biotechnology research, has announced the establishment of Artificial Intelligence Lab for Biosciences to drive innovation. This lab will be a part of the Dutch National Innovation Centre for AI (ICAI) that works to keep the Netherlands at the forefront of talent development in AI.
The AI4B.io Lab is touted to be the first one of its kind in Europe to apply Artificial Intelligence to full-scale manufacturing ranging from microbial strain development to process optimisation and scheduling. It will be led by Professor Marcel Reinders, the Director, TU Delft Bioengineering Institute. Moreover, this partnership is all set to position Delft as the global bio-economy capital.
Partnership with TU Delft
By working closely with its partners, DSM can drive progress and create access to the latest technologies. To do so, DSM has teamed up with TU Delft so that they can set up and develop the AI4B.io Lab. This will be the third ICAI lab to be set up on the campus of TU Delft. The others include AI for Retail Lab Delft of Ahold Delhaize and AI for Fintech Lab of ING. Furthermore, TU Delft will invest in 24 interdisciplinary AI labs on a range of topics for further collaboration between scientists who work in AI and other domains.
Besides this, AI4B.io Lab will collaborate with Planet B.io, an open innovation ecosystem as the Biotech at the Biotech Campus Delft.
Professor Marcel Reinders, Director, TU Delft Bioengineering Institute, said: ‘’Biotechnology can contribute significantly to solving major societal challenges, such as climate change, healthy nutrition for the world’s rapidly growing population, and raw material scarcity. AI plays a crucial role in developing biotechnology applications, but – scientifically speaking – there are still many unanswered questions at the cellular, lab, and process level. By linking our fundamental research to concrete opportunities at DSM, we can maximise our impact.”
Marcus Remmers, Chief Technology Officer, DSM said: “TU Delft has a proven track record of groundbreaking research in AI, Bioengineering, and Bioinformatics. DSM is a global, science-based company that creates sustainable, bio-based products and solutions commercially. This makes our parties the perfect match to tackle important scientific and societal challenges together.”
Cindy Gerhardt, Managing Director Planet B.io, says, ‘’At Planet B.io, we stimulate open innovation and collaboration between startups, corporations, and knowledge institutes to develop bio-based products and solutions. We look forward to working together with the AI4B.io Lab to maximize the potential of AI and biosciences.’’
Bioscience innovation to resolve key challenges
Notably, DSM considers biosciences as a significant tool to address climatic change and resource scarcity. It also believes that this segment of science can optimise the global food system. Eventually, DSM will invest €2.5M into the AI4B.io Lab in the next five years. DSM has a strong experience of over 150 years and has developed an extensive portfolio of sustainable, bio-based solutions claimed to resolve some key societal challenges. Notably, both TU Delft and DSM are founding partners of Planet B.io.
Currently, there are developments that make it simple to understand biology and major advancements in digital transformation. These are opening up exciting possibilities for new bio-based products, manufacturing processes and applications. These integrate digital technologies and biosciences and help reduce the overall time spent on innovation from prototyping to commercialisation.
One of its kind lab in Europe
Previously, scientific research was based on trial and error methods from multiple studies. With AI, the desired object can be brought to life within a digital environment using digital twins. This is nothing but a virtual twin of the desired situation in the real-world. And, machine learning helps determine how one can achieve the same. Notably, the AI4B.io Lab is one of the first labs of its kind in Europe as it explores the potential of AI in biosciences and biomanufacturing.