FutureHouse and Edison Scientific publish twelve 'Millennium Problems for Biology', pitched as the 'last reasonable eval' for AI in biology
On Sept 19, 2026, citing AI's progress in mathematics, FutureHouse and Edison Scientific (Sam Rodriques, Michaela Hinks) published twelve "Millennium Problems for Biology": very hard to solve but easy to validate in a simple lab, from synthesizing life from chemicals and reversibly cryopreserving whole mice to a reverse translatase and a better Rubisco. Rodriques called them "the 'last reasonable eval' for AI in biology"; the launch post had ~508k views on X, and cash prizes and a judging panel were promised.
Key facts
- The 12 problems: origins of life; whole-mouse cryopreservation; reverse translatase (protein → nucleic acid); improved Rubisco; quadruplet-codon cell; somatic limb regeneration in mammals; bacterial production of AAV/lentivirus; programmable proteases; cell-penetrating intracellular protein binders; protein amplification chain reaction; 5′ polymerases; new nitrogenases
- Design rule: each has acceptance criteria checkable in a simple laboratory environment
- Sept 21 update (Rodriques): the specs will be revised after community feedback; FutureHouse will run a community process for a longer list of grand challenges, convene a panel to adjudicate success and announce cash prizes
- Sept 28: Andrew White (FutureHouse co-founder) joked that 'Millennium problems for bio #4 lasted 9 days?', pointing to a UC Davis/LBNL bioRxiv preprint (posted Sept 9) in which protein-language-model-designed de novo Rubiscos were active and one showed an apparent CO2/O2 specificity beyond the natural Rubiscos assayed; no adjudication has been announced
- Hacker News discussion reached 164 points (Sept 20)
Science result
- Field
- biology / synthetic biology / protein engineering
- Problem
- Twelve lab-verifiable grand challenges in biology (Millennium Problems for Biology)
- Result
- Problem list and acceptance criteria published; no problem officially adjudicated as solved yet (a PLM-designed Rubisco preprint was informally pointed to for problem #4)
- Human role
- Human-curated challenge list intended as targets for AI scientists
- Verification
- unverified claim
- Status
- pending
What happened
Rodriques framed the list as biology's answer to the run of AI results on open math problems: concrete tasks that, if an AI scientist (or anyone) solved them, would be unambiguous to check at the bench.
Why it matters
Benchmarks for AI in science are saturating. A small set of hard, lab-checkable targets from an AI-scientist lab gives a public yardstick for claims that AI systems are doing transformative biology, though how wins are judged is still being worked out.
Changelog
- 2026-10-03: created (lead from HN, Sept 30)
Related posts (3)
- Andrew White 🐦⬛ original ↗ Andrew White 🐦⬛ @andrewwhite01 · x · 2026-09-28
Cited as a source by: 2026-09-19-millennium-problems-for-biology - Sam Rodriques original ↗ Sam Rodriques @SGRodriques · x · 2026-09-21
Cited as a source by: 2026-09-19-millennium-problems-for-biology - Sam Rodriques launches the Millennium Problems for Biology ('the last reasonable eval for AI in biology') original ↗ Sam Rodriques @SGRodriques · x · 2026-09-19
First-hand launch of FutureHouse/Edison's twelve lab-verifiable grand challenges for AI in biology (~508k views).
Related events
- OpenAI claims a Millennium Prize problem: 10,000 AI agents prove forced Navier–Stokes blow-up; priority dispute erupts ★★★★★
- FutureHouse's Robin multi-agent system proposes ripasudil as a new treatment candidate for dry AMD ★★★
Sources (7)
- officialMillennium Problems for Biology (site)
- officialFutureHouse: Millennium Problems for Biology
- officialSam Rodriques on X: launch post (~508k views)
- officialSam Rodriques on X: Sept 21 update (panel, prizes, expanded list)
- discussionAndrew White on X: '#4 lasted 9 days?'
- paperbioRxiv: De novo Rubisco design with protein language models (Kehl, ..., Siegel)
- discussionHacker News discussion
id: 2026-09-19-millennium-problems-for-biology · updated 2026-10-03 · open in the interactive timeline