Recursion Completes Whole-Genome Microglia Map With Roche and Genentech

Recursion announces the acceptance of its whole-genome Microglia Map by Roche and Genentech, marking the culmination of a three-year collaboration focused on decoding microglial cell biology.

The milestone triggered a $30 million payment to Recursion, bringing total cash inflows from the Roche-Genentech partnership to $213 million. Across all partnerships, Recursion has now received over $500 million in upfront and milestone payments.

The Microglia Map contains 46 million images of hiPSC-derived microglia, generated through new cell-manufacturing techniques, automated labs, and Recursion’s machine learning platform. The dataset is built from a large-scale perturbation campaign involving approximately 100,000 sgRNA CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts across more than 17,000 genes, and thousands of small molecules. In total, over 100 billion microglial cells were produced to build this map, and Recursion reports producing more than 1 trillion hiPSC-derived cells for neuroscience applications to date.

Recursion's Microglia Map

This is the second neuroscience map optioned under the Roche and Genentech collaboration and the sixth phenomap delivered overall. Four additional maps have been completed in the gastrointestinal oncology portion of the partnership. The first whole-genome Neuromap was delivered in 2024.

Recursion's Neuromap; October 23, 2024

The Microglia Map is designed to offer an unbiased, whole-genome view of microglial biology—aiming to reveal new therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and ALS. Recursion's mapping approach combines high-throughput experimental systems with its Recursion OS to navigate disease-relevant biology at a systems level, beyond conventional target selection.

Source: Recursion

According to WHO, neurological disorders affect over 3 billion people globally, while CNS drug programs suffer from low success rates and a narrow pool of validated targets. FDA approval rates for neuroscience are less than half of those in other therapeutic areas, according to Deloitte. The Microglia Map is meant as a tool to help overcome these limitations by enabling high-dimensional exploration of previously uncharacterized pathways in brain immune cell function.

Topic: NeuroTech