CarbonX Intelligence, founded by the former CEO of BGI, was valued at US$1 billion within six months of its establishment.

On May 25, 2018, German Chancellor Merkel, who was on a state visit to China, took a special plane to Shenzhen despite her busy schedule. When she got off the plane, Merkel did not go to Tencent or Huawei. Instead of going to BYD, he went straight to an industrial zone near Qiaoxiang Road in Nanshan District and entered a company that many people had never heard of: iCarbonX.

Why didn’t Merkel go to Shenzhen’s iconic companies like Tencent, ZTE, and Huawei, but to a small company that was just founded? Because this company is related to human life and health, and it is a unicorn in this field.

The founder of iCarbonX is Mr. Wang Jun, the former CEO of BGI. When he was 16 years old, he left his hometown in Jiangsu and entered Peking University to major in biology. He also majored in computer science and Mathematics, when he was doing his graduation thesis, something shocked him:

He built a digital ladybug on the computer, and through a set of learning programs, he made this digital ladybug open to the natural world. After learning from a real ladybug, after hundreds of thousands of generations of self-iteration, this digital ladybug has evolved to be almost identical to the natural ladybug. Only then did Wang Jun realize that in addition to calculations, calculators could also think and learn.

A wonderful idea emerged from this: Since digital ladybugs can learn the lifestyle of natural ladybugs, can the mysteries of human life be discovered by observing digital humans? However, human learning ability mainly comes from the brain. Although artificial intelligence had begun to rise at that time, the understanding of the brain was still almost empty. Wang Jun needed to wait for an opportunity.

As long as an idea takes root in your mind, it will sprout at the right time. In 1999, Wang Jun began to participate in human gene sequencing work, and later joined BGI. Wang Jun became a major participant in the Human Genome Project and the Rice Genome Project, and also contributed to the Asian genome, giant panda genome, human intestinal metagene, etc. Significant achievements were made in the project.

The conditions for realizing the original idea slowly formed. In 2015, Wang Jun resigned from BGI to innovate iCarbonX Intelligence and began the long road of researching digital life. He wanted to use artificial intelligence methods , with the help of big data, we can systematically understand human life itself.

In 2016, iCarbonX Intelligent established its first international base, planning to use artificial intelligence technology to establish a health big data platform to effectively manage human health. Wang Jun said: Once everyone's digital life information is available, iCarbonX can use artificial intelligence to simulate a virtual "stand-in" to help people test individual responses to different drugs and medical products, and simulate people in different environments. Physiological changes in the body, etc., play a role in life and health management and prediction. Managing digital life can deepen our understanding of life and improve the quality of human life.

In the same year, iCarbonX completed Series A financing, with a financing scale of nearly RMB 1 billion and a valuation of US$1 billion. Tencent was one of the investors. iCarbonX has also become the fastest growing in the field of artificial intelligence. of enterprises. The famous American business media "Fast Company" selected iCarbonX into the top 10 of the world's most innovative companies in 2017. The top British magazine "The Economist" also evaluated iCarbonX as the world's most potential disruptor in the medical and health industry. one of those.

Therefore, Merkel’s visit is no accident.

The core technology of iCarbonX is the big data of the human body, including genetic data, microbial data such as intestinal tract, oral cavity, and skin, and metabolic data such as human protein, urine, sweat, and blood. Pharmaceutical factories, physical examination centers, hospitals, insurance companies, and health management companies cooperate to collect and analyze people's physical examination data, environmental data, exercise data, and dietary data to establish a digital model of human life and health.

Maybe one day in the future, each of us will have a "digital" self. Our daily physical health data will be synchronized to this "digital" self, and then we can understand ourselves through it. Regarding your health condition, you should know in advance that diseases will appear in your body, and then treat them in advance to virtually drive away the disease. We can even conduct various drug tests on this "digital" self and observe the human body's reactions to various drugs.

This human life and health level will be significantly improved, and human life span will also be extended.

With the explosion of the Internet, the gradual maturity of artificial intelligence, the establishment and improvement of big data, and the widespread popularity of software and hardware, human life and health will be the next focus of human research. , this field will also gain unprecedented opportunities. The perfect combination of life sciences and big data will give birth to a new industry and many unicorn companies. iCarbonX Intelligence can be regarded as a pioneer and pathfinder.

The seed that sprouted in Wang Jun’s heart has slowly grown into a big tree.

The future is bright! Let us praise innovation together!

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