Agilent and UC San Diego Launch Center of Excellence in Cellular Intelligence

Agilent CoE supports research on how cells function and adapt, revealing new insights into biological processes

SANTA CLARA & SAN DIEGO, Calif., April 2, 2024   

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets, and the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), one of the top-ranked public research universities in the world, today announced an innovative scientific collaboration to establish the Agilent Center of Excellence (CoE) in Cellular Intelligence.

The Agilent CoE, located at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine, will foster collaboration and innovation among researchers from Agilent and UC San Diego, and other institutions and industry partners. The CoE will serve as a hub for academic and pharma/biopharma researchers in the region, enabling access to vital analytical instrumentation and providing education, training, and application development opportunities.

"This important initiative will improve our understanding of disease mechanisms at the cellular level—and drive the development of better methods for editing and engineering cells to treat diseases, enhance immunity, and create novel bioproducts,” said Mike McMullen, Agilent President and CEO.

The CoE will leverage Agilent instrumentation, including cell analysis and mass spectroscopy solutions, to support an ambitious transdisciplinary initiative: Decode Eukaryotic Cellular Intelligence, a research program that aims to understand how eukaryotic cells sense, decide, and act in complex and uncertain environments, with implications for health and disease.

“We are thrilled to partner with Agilent to launch the Agilent CoE in Cellular Intelligence at UC San Diego, which will advance our understanding of the fundamental principles of life and the origin of biological complexity,” added Dr. Pradipta Ghosh, Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego and Founding Director of the program. 

The program is based on the hypothesis that eukaryotic cells function as deep reinforcement learning (RL) agents that use interlinked switch circuits of biological intelligence to adapt and survive. It combines experimental, computational, and theoretical approaches to decode the molecular and cellular mechanisms of these switch circuits and explore their implications for health and disease.

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About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global leader in analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, delivering insights and innovation that help our customers bring great science to life. Agilent’s full range of solutions includes instruments, software, services, and expertise that provide trusted answers to our customers' most challenging questions. The company generated revenue of $6.83 billion in fiscal 2023 and employs approximately 18,000 people worldwide. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com. To receive the latest Agilent news, please subscribe to the Agilent Newsroom. Follow Agilent on LinkedIn and Facebook.

About UC San Diego
At the University of California San Diego, a culture of risk-taking, collaboration and innovation emerged early on. Established in 1960, UC San Diego has been shaped by exceptional scholars who aren’t afraid to push boundaries, challenge expectations and redefine conventional wisdom in order to make our world better. The only criterion our founders had for their campus was that it must be distinctive – and being experimental has been the norm since day one. UC San Diego is a top-ranked public research institution and one of the most applied to universities in the nation. Learn more at www.ucsd.edu.