NVIDIA Expands BioNeMo with RNAPro, ReaSyn v2 and $1B Lilly Co-Innovation Lab
NVIDIA expanded its BioNeMo platform with RNAPro and ReaSyn v2 models, plus BioNeMo Recipes and nvMolKit libraries, to accelerate RNA structure prediction, molecular design and scalable model training. It launched a five-year, up-to-$1 billion co-innovation lab with Eli Lilly and teamed with Thermo Fisher to integrate autonomous lab infrastructure for AI-driven drug discovery.
1. NVIDIA BioNeMo Platform Expands to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Discovery
At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on January 12, 2026, NVIDIA announced key enhancements to its open BioNeMo platform, designed to turn the life sciences industry’s $300 billion–a-year R&D spend into a competitive engine for drug discovery. The update adds two new Clara open models—RNAPro for RNA structure prediction and ReaSyn v2 for practical drug synthesis—and introduces BioNeMo Recipes and nvMolKit, a GPU-accelerated cheminformatics library. Together, these tools enable researchers to scale foundation model training and molecular design workflows, potentially cutting experiment cycle times by up to 40% and lowering per-project R&D costs by millions.
2. Landmark $1 B Co-Innovation Lab with Eli Lilly Targets Continuous Learning
NVIDIA and Eli Lilly unveiled plans to invest up to $1 billion over five years in a San Francisco Bay Area co-innovation lab that integrates Lilly’s chemistry and biology expertise with NVIDIA’s AI computing and robotics. Building on Lilly’s existing DGX SuperPOD and AI factory – currently the largest in biopharma – the initiative will deploy next-generation architectures including Vera Rubin to support 24/7 AI-assisted experimentation. By co-locating domain experts and model engineers, the lab aims to double the throughput of lead candidate identification and reduce preclinical optimization timelines by up to 30%.
3. Thermo Fisher Collaboration to Build Autonomous, Edge-to-Cloud Labs
In parallel, NVIDIA and Thermo Fisher Scientific announced a collaboration to transform conventional labs into scalable, automated data factories. The partnership will leverage the NVIDIA DGX Spark desktop supercomputer to orchestrate high-throughput workflows and NVIDIA NeMo agentic AI to autonomously generate protocols, run experiments and perform real-time quality control. Integrated BioNeMo tools will deliver immediate interpretation of instrument outputs, shortening the time from raw data to actionable insights by an estimated 50%. This end-to-end solution targets a goal of automating 75% of routine assay development within two years.
4. Growing Ecosystem of Biotech Adopters Broadens NVIDIA’s Reach
More than 20 leading biotech and drug discovery firms—including Basecamp Research, Boltz PBC, Chai Discovery and Natera—have already adopted BioNeMo to power foundation model development and AI-driven molecular design. Basecamp’s EDEN models now insert large DNA segments with 90% accuracy, while Boltz Lab reports a 3× increase in candidate generation speed. Chai Discovery has reduced model customization time from months to weeks, and Natera leverages its proprietary genomic dataset to accelerate oncology drug design. Together, this expanding ecosystem underscores an addressable market expected to exceed $5 billion in platform services by 2027.