OpenAI, PerturbAI and Scripps Research announced on Wednesday that they split a whole-brain CRISPR atlas — 8 million mouse brain cells and nearly 2,000 disease-linked genes — across roughly 2,000 GPT-Rosalind agents, each investigating one gene disruption, analyzing how cells responded and searching the scientific literature for explanations. The full analysis took 32 minutes; the team estimates the same one-perturbation-at-a-time work would take human experts several months to a year.

The combined output is a public reasoning atlas linking genes, cellular effects, publications and candidate mechanisms. The distributed agents cited more than 700 references, against 11 from a single agent given the full dataset, and blinded specialists preferred the multi-agent reports 75% of the time. Their novelty and scientific-value judgments also lined up with the human experts'.

Two leads stood out: unexpected differences between disrupting Tsc1 and Tsc2, genes relevant to tuberous sclerosis, in movement-related brain regions including the cerebellum; and a new hypothesis linking disruption of DCTN1 to altered cholesterol regulation in neurons, relevant to Perry syndrome, a Parkinson's-like neurodegenerative condition. Both are research leads needing lab testing, and the companion paper is a bioRxiv preprint that has not been peer reviewed.