On May 6, leaders in research and technology came together at the AWS Life Sciences Symposium to talk about one of the industry’s biggest opportunities: making complex data usable, shareable, and impactful at scale.
One of the highlights….a keynote featuring the Broad Institute, AWS, and Manifold AI—and the announcement of a partnership that’s set to change how life sciences organizations access and analyze data.
Why It Matters
Data has always been at the heart of the Broad Institute’s mission. Broad and Broad Clinical Labs now generate staggering volumes—over 30 petabytes a year, or 85 terabytes a day. Historically, sharing and analyzing data of this magnitude meant moving files between institutions, a time-consuming and inefficient process.
As medicine becomes more data-driven, and AI capabilities expand, the industry needs a better way. That’s where AWS and Manifold AI come in.
The Partnership in Action
With most pharma companies already operating on AWS, the collaboration makes it simple for researchers to tap into Broad’s data directly in the cloud. Manifold AI modernizes Broad’s Terra platform using AWS services like HealthOmics, Bedrock, and Claude on AWS—unlocking new possibilities for scale and speed.
Key features include:
- Harmonized multi-modal datasets (genomic, transcriptomic, clinical)
- Federated infrastructure, where compute and AI run at the point of data generation
- AI agents for complex tasks like cohort building and survival analysis
The Demo Everyone Talked About
During the keynote, Manifold showcased how this changes research on the ground. Using an AWS-hosted Blended Genome-Exome (BGE) dataset sequenced by Broad Clinical Labs, researchers were able to:
- Query data with natural language (e.g., “women with bipolar disorder and specific gene mutations”)
- Build and share analysis-ready cohorts in minutes
- Eliminate days of manual data wrangling and transfers
The result: faster insights, easier collaboration, and a huge leap in research productivity.
What’s Next
This is only the beginning. In the coming months, additional Broad-developed tools will be rolled out as scientific apps on the platform, and controlled datasets hosted by Broad for organizations like the NIH will become broadly accessible on AWS.
The impact? Faster science, deeper insights, and ultimately, better outcomes for patients.
👉 The AWS Life Sciences Symposium made one thing clear: the future of discovery is collaborative, cloud-based, and AI-driven. With Broad, AWS, and Manifold AI leading the way, that future is already taking shape.