Understanding how diseases work in the body is central to discovering new medicines, and remains one of biology’s greatest challenges, a problem at the core of biomedical research. To tackle this, Merck & Co., in collaboration with the BCG X Al Science Institute, developed a new family of foundation models: TEDDY (Transformers for Enabling Drug DiscoverY). TEDDY aims to advance how machine learning is used to understand disease biology.
The Future of Science Is AI-Powered
AI is redefining the future of scientific discovery, and the BCG X AI Science Institute stands at the forefront of this transformation. The Institute brings the power of AI to scientific research, discovery, and innovation—where cutting-edge AI research, academic rigor, and real-world business impact converge.
In partnership with universities, industry experts, and leading R&D teams, the Institute drives progress by leveraging AI to advance scientific research from innovation to impact, accelerating breakthroughs in healthcare, climate science, energy, and beyond.
AI is rapidly reshaping the boundaries of what’s achievable for companies, organizations, and governments. By merging advances in artificial intelligence and computer science with domain expertise across sectors, the BCG X AI Science Institute delivers next-generation solutions that power real-world scientific breakthroughs and sustained competitive advantage for our partners around the globe. Harnessing the knowledge of BCG X’s more than 3,000 experts—including over 200 PhDs—we’re redefining what’s possible, scaling discovery, and unlocking insights at a pace once unimaginable in science and engineering.
Our Approach
AI is at an inflection point. It’s no longer enough for research-focused companies to merely experiment with AI—robust adoption is imperative. Through collaborations with academic institutions and industry leaders, the Institute is committed to advancing high-impact breakthroughs that address some of the world’s most pressing challenges—including climate change, disease treatment, and energy scarcity.
By leveraging proprietary data, leading-edge AI capabilities, human expertise, and BCG X’s ever-expanding portfolio of approximately 70 patents and patents pending, we prioritize scientific exploration with an AI-first mindset that drives both impact and business value. We guide companies through the experimentation phase to achieve measurable outcomes quickly.
Our Collaborations
Video
2025年7月14日
Meet Teddy: Merck & Co.'s New Family of Foundation Models Built in Collaboration With the BCG X AI Science Institute
How We Work With Our Partners
- Start with the business challenge. We partner with R&D leaders to uncover the most valuable AI applications, leveraging proprietary data and strategic assets to drive differentiated innovation and deliver measurable outcomes.
- Validate and scale solutions. We build, train, and pressure-test models, ensuring thorough integration into scientific workflows and rapid transition from experimentation to tangible value.
- Operationalize AI for impact. We equip organizations with the knowledge and research-based solutions to move beyond ideas, hypotheses, and pilots, embedding AI into core R&D processes to create lasting impact.
AI-Powered Scientific Innovation Across Multiple Topics
Our teams are actively driving innovation across a wide range of topics and industries, with plans to expand into new areas in the future.
- Drug Discovery: Accelerating drug development timelines and uncovering new treatment possibilities
- Climate Modeling: Enabling environmental simulations to mitigate climate risks and develop sustainable strategies with unprecedented precision
- Air Traffic: Transforming the US aviation ecosystem, using AI for peak efficiency, maximum safety, net-zero emissions, and exceptional passenger satisfaction
- Advanced Materials and Design: Discovering next-generation materials for aerospace, energy, and manufacturing through exponentially accelerated research capabilities
Our Latest Insights from the BCG X AI Science Institute
GAIA is a self-supervised AI model for satellite imagery that fills in missing data and estimates precipitation, improving weather and climate analysis with open-source availability.
Researchers developed TEDDY, a family of large transformer models trained on 116M single-cell RNA data using supervised pre-training, showing strong gains in disease state prediction tasks.
Press Release
2024年4月18日
BCG, NASA, and USRA launched a GenAI lab to explore AI’s role in Earth science, life sciences, and engineering, focusing on responsible model development and open-source evaluation.
BCG and Merck have partnered to use AI and GenAI to discover drug targets by mining omics data, initially focusing on chronic and degenerative disease pathways via BCG X’s algorithm development.
Meet the BCG X AI Science Institute Experts
Our teams include scientists, engineers, technologists, and domain and industry experts who work alongside businesses to identify, validate, and scale AI-powered breakthroughs. We provide unmatched scientific rigor, extensive IP, and an unparalleled understanding of AI innovations to deliver best-in-class AI enablement and transformation.
