Cancer Research UK funds £8 million Project AURORA to test an AI co-scientist with three cancer teams
Three Cancer Grand Challenges teams will use an agentic system, led by Marinka Zitnik's group at Harvard Medical School, to search literature, propose hypotheses and design experiments, with scientists choosing which to run in the lab.
Why it matters
This is one of the first funded trials of an AI co-scientist embedded in working cancer research teams rather than tested on benchmarks. The teams will study why some normal cells become cancerous, how the immune system can better recognise tumours, and how immune-cell therapies for childhood cancers could improve. Lab results will be fed back into the system to guide later suggestions. Cancer Research UK says it could also help drop less promising avenues earlier. Watch for which AI-proposed experiments are run and what they find.
Key facts
- Funding: £8 million from Cancer Research UK
- Three Cancer Grand Challenges teams
- AI platform development led by Marinka Zitnik, Harvard Medical School
- Cancer Grand Challenges: Cancer Research UK and the US National Cancer Institute
- Scientists choose which AI-proposed experiments to run