What You Should Know
- The Launch: Alphabet’s Verily is lowering the barrier to entry for biomedical research by launching a free, self-serve “Standard tier” for its Pre precision health platform.
- The Tech: Researchers can now instantly access Verily’s Exchange (data catalog) and Workbench (trusted research environment) using just a Google account, bypassing months of traditional IT provisioning and data-use red tape.
- The Data: The launch includes three massive new datasets: an Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) pipeline with single-cell transcriptomics from RefinedScience, real-world breast imaging data from Segmed, and rare disease CRISPRi maps from Transcripta Bio.
The “Self-Serve” Revolution
Historically, accessing datasets of this magnitude required institutional backing and heavy enterprise contracts. Verily is applying a modern SaaS strategy to clinical research: democratize access to hook the user, and provide a seamless environment to do the work.
Once a user clicks through standard DUAs, they can instantly view and analyze existing collections like the Project Baseline Health Study. Furthermore, the Workbench environment allows them to spin up to five collaborative workspaces equipped with visualization tools and advanced analytics—meaning the compute happens where the data lives, ensuring security and governance.
The New Data Heavyweights
A data platform is only as good as its catalog. To coincide with the self-serve launch, Verily is onboarding three highly specialized, novel datasets to complement its existing partnerships with the NIH and the Michael J. Fox Foundation:
- RefinedScience: A longitudinal Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) dataset covering over 300 patients treated with venetoclax and azacitidine. It includes high-value omics data, such as single-cell transcriptomics (CITE-seq), and comes with a free no-code exploration tool (scExploreR).
- Segmed: A massive real-world imaging database. The initial dataset entering the Exchange features 558 digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) exams—including 271 biopsy-proven malignant lesions—drawn from a broader pool of 150 million de-identified exams.
- Transcripta Bio: A high-resolution CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) dataset mapping the cellular consequences of gene knockdowns linked to hundreds of rare diseases, designed to speed up early-stage drug discovery.
