Broad Institute and Manifold Collaborate to Build AI-Enabled Life Sciences Research Platform to Accelerate Global Discoveries

Strategic collaboration will introduce AI-enabled tools, optimized data sharing, bring your own cloud (BYOC) support, and enhanced scalability

NEWTON, Mass., Jan. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard today announced a strategic collaboration with Manifold, a leader in research infrastructure for biomedical science, to develop a cutting-edge research platform. This initiative expands on Broad's vision for biomedical data analysis, secure sharing, and global collaboration through a powerful new architecture that will include advanced capabilities such as multi-cloud capacity, new suites of analysis technologies, and improvements to usability and accessibility to drive impact for biomedical research everywhere.

The platform, developed by Manifold in collaboration with the Broad Institute's Data Sciences Platform team, will build on the principles of Terra, a trusted system for large-scale data analysis and secure collaboration. It will address the evolving demands of modern life sciences research while continuing Terra's longstanding core values, including secure sharing, global collaboration, and a steadfast commitment to responsible stewardship, ensuring that data providers retain full control over who is permitted to access and use their data.

Founded in 2016, Manifold is an AI-powered platform accelerating biomedical research. By removing manual bottlenecks in data collection, organization, governance, and analysis, Manifold enables researchers to focus on discovery, unlocking the full potential of their data without technical barriers. As a trusted partner in biomedical research, Manifold's platform supports transformative projects at leading organizations including the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Morehouse School of Medicine.

"As we look to the future, we've been seeking a collaborator who shares our vision for Terra and has the technical and scientific track record to help us bring powerful, collaborative data-management and analysis tools into the next decade," said Todd Golub, Director of the Broad Institute. "Manifold's expertise in platforms to power life sciences research makes them an ideal collaborator to create a solution that can readily anticipate and offer what the life sciences will need in the years ahead, and extend the reliability, community, and data-security principles Terra was founded on."

In addition to retaining the existing features Terra users count on, Manifold's platform will introduce new capabilities including:

• Bring your own cloud: Enables researchers to work in alignment with their organization's cloud strategy, offering flexibility and a solution to fragmented data ecosystems
• Enhanced scalability: Designed to accommodate the exponential growth of biomedical data, supporting higher user volumes, more complex workflows, and massive datasets without compromising performance
• Proven approach to data harmonization: Seamlessly ingests and harmonizes diverse datasets into a research-ready environment, compatible with industry standards, ensuring data owners retain full control over access and permissions
• Purpose-built AI agents: Provides advanced capabilities such as natural language search, cohort building, automated survival and gene expression analysis, and the ability to "chat" with your data
• Improved data discovery: Features configurable reports, domain-specific visualizations, and semantic search to simplify data exploration and interpretation
• Trusted data sharing and collaboration: Offers seamless collaboration across institutions within a secure research environment, ensuring adherence to data usage policies, fine-grained access controls, and comprehensive audit trails

"It's now becoming possible to work simultaneously across many different types of biomedical information and identify connections and insights that were out of reach just a few years ago," said Eric S. Lander, Founding Director of the Broad Institute. "Our goal is to ensure scientists everywhere have access to the advanced tools and methods necessary to generate these insights by removing the technical barriers that limit researchers' ability to advance progress for science and medicine."

The platform will nurture a global community of scientists, fostering collaboration and integrating diverse expertise to democratize access to innovative pipelines and methodologies. This will empower researchers everywhere to draw insights from vast and complex datasets more effectively. Broad's software engineering team and the large computational and biological scientists who are part of the Broad research community will be active contributors to the platform, with a continued commitment to open science and sharing reproducible techniques and insights.

"Manifold and Broad are redefining the future of biomedical research with a new platform that advances the principles of Terra while setting new standards for innovation and accessibility," said Vinay Seth Mohta, CEO of Manifold. "By combining Broad's expertise in biomedical science with Manifold's technical leadership, we are removing barriers to progress and enabling researchers to work faster, smarter, and more collaboratively than ever before."

Learn more about the collaboration between Broad Institute and Manifold.

About Manifold
Manifold is a technology company that builds research infrastructure for biomedical science. Organizations of all sizes — from small teams to world-renowned institutions — use Manifold's software for managing data at genomic scale, collaborating across enterprises, and doing cutting-edge data science.

About Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was launched in 2004 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine. The Broad Institute seeks to describe the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods and data openly to the entire scientific community.

Founded by MIT, Harvard, Harvard-affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Contact
Alex Maynard
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SOURCE Manifold