NVIDIA Establishes New R&D Group in Israel to Drive Medical and Scientific AI
NVIDIA CTO Michael Kagan has launched a new applied AI research group in Israel led by Dr. Nati Daniel. The team focuses on medical breakthroughs, genomic models, and drug discovery partnerships with Sheba and Mount Sinai.
NVIDIA's Chief Technology Officer, Michael Kagan, has established a new group in Israel dedicated to advancing medical and scientific breakthroughs, Calcalist has learned. The group has begun operating at NVIDIA's Israeli development center as part of the global CTO office, headed by Kagan—one of Mellanox's founders and the most senior Israeli executive at NVIDIA, reporting directly to CEO Jensen Huang.
Applied AI Architecture and Medical Research
Led by Dr. Nati Daniel, who holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from the Technion, the newly formed Applied AI Architecture group currently employs several researchers in Israel, with plans to hire dozens more over the coming year. Open positions are already listed on NVIDIA's career site for offices in Tel Aviv.
The core idea behind the new group is to transform artificial intelligence into a genuine engine that accelerates scientific and medical discoveries through long-term research.
Strategic Collaborations and Global Projects
The group's work model uniquely combines internal R&D with partnerships with medical institutions, capitalizing on Israel's advanced AI healthcare ecosystem. The team is already collaborating with the Sheba Medical Center and New York's Mount Sinai Hospital to develop a Genomic Foundation Model (gFM). This AI model aims to decode the 98% of the human genome that remains largely unexplored, opening new pathways for disease prevention, diagnostics, and personalized medicine.
Furthermore, the Israeli group is participating in NVIDIA's global collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, a five-year, $1 billion initiative leveraging AI to accelerate drug discovery. It is also involved in GENMAT, an international research venture backed by a 6 million euro grant from the European Union's Horizon program, focused on developing AI tools to accelerate the discovery of advanced materials for aviation, automotive, and pharma industries.
