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Why this battery company is pivoting to AI
Qichao Hu doesnβt mince words about how he sees the state of the battery industry. βAlmost every Western battery company has either died or is going to die. Itβs kind of the reality,β he says.
Hu is the CEO of SES AI, a Massachusetts-based battery company. It once had aims of making huge amounts of advanced lithium metal batteries for major industries like electric vehiclesβbut now the company is placing its bets on AI materials discovery.
Hu sees the pivot as an essential one. βItβs just not possible for a Western company to build a sustainable business,β he says. The company is still making some batteries, but only for smaller markets like drones rather than those that would require higher volumes, like EVs. The new focus is the companyβs battery materials discovery platformβwhich it can either license to other battery companies or use to develop materials to sell.Β
Some leading US EV battery companies have folded in recent months, and others, like SES AI, are making dramatic changes in strategy. This shift in whoβs building batteries and where theyβre doing it could shape the future geopolitics of energy.Β
The work that would eventually evolve into SES AI began at MIT, where Hu completed his graduate research. His battery work was aimed at applications in oil and gas exploration. The industry uses sensors that go deep underground, where temperatures can top 120 Β°C (about 250 Β°F). The team hoped to develop a battery that could withstand those high temperatures and last longer on a single charge.Β
The chosen technology was a solid polymer lithium metal battery. These cells use lithium metal for their anode and a polymer for their electrolyte (the material that ions move through in a battery cell). Together, these components can increase the energy density of a cell significantly, relative to the lithium-ion batteries that are common in personal devices and EVs today. (Lithium-ion batteries generally use a graphite material for their anode and a liquid for the electrolyte.)
That solid-state battery technology became the foundation of Solid Energy, a startup Hu founded that spun out from MIT in 2012 and raised its first private investment in 2013.
The team eventually realized that underground oil exploration was a small market, so after several years of operation they began to focus on electric vehicles, which were starting to come into the mainstream. After the team tweaked the chemistry to work better at lower temperatures, the company built its first pilot facility in Massachusetts and eventually another facility in Shanghai.
By 2021, the battery industry was booming, Hu recalls, and EVs were the hottest industry to be in. There was a ton of interest in next-generation battery technology from major automakers at the time, and Solid Energy started developing technology with GM, Hyundai, and Honda.
Larger vehicles, like SUVs and trucks, seemed like a good fit for next-generation batteries, Hu says. Massive vehicles like the ones Americans like to drive would need lighter batteries so they could have a reasonable range without being prohibitively heavy.
The company also shifted its chemistry focus, and in 2022 it announced a battery with a silicon anode rather than a lithium metal one. That shift could help make the battery easier to manufacture.
Since then, growth in the EV market has slowed, at least in the US, partly because of major pullbacks in funding from the Trump administration. EV tax credits for drivers, a key piece of support pushing Americans toward electric options, ended in late 2025. With the market for large electric cars in trouble, Hu says, βnow we have to look at every market.βΒ Β
The AI materials discovery platform on which itβs pinning many of its hopes is called Molecular Universe. The company seeks not only to provide its software to other battery companies but also to identify new battery materials and either license them or sell them to those companies.

The platform has already identified six new electrolyte materials, according to the company. Hu says one is an additive that could help improve the lifetime of batteries with silicon anodes.Β
One of the challenges with silicon anodes is that they tend to swell a lot during use, which can cause physical damage and prevent efficient charging and discharging. To address the problem, the industry typically uses a material called fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), which can help form an elastic film on the anode so the battery can still charge effectively. That additive can degrade at high temperatures, though, producing gases that can harm a batteryβs lifetime. The SES platform identified a compound that works like FEC but doesnβt release those gases.
The companyβs long history and deep battery knowledge could help make its platform a useful tool, Hu says. He sees the actual model as less crucial than SESβs domain expertise and data from years of making and testing batteries.Β
βBy not actually making the physical battery, weβre actually able to scale and then generate revenue faster,β he says.Β
But some experts are skeptical about the near-term prospects for AI materials discovery to revive the industry. βNew materials development, as much as we thought that was what people wanted (and, frankly, it should be what the cell makers want)βI donβt know that that seems to be the real linchpin of the battery industryβs progress,β says Kara Rodby, a technical principal at Volta Energy Technologies, a venture capital firm that focuses on the energy storage industry.
Investors are pulling back, and a slowdown in public support is making things difficult for some parts of the battery industry, she adds: βI donβt know that the ability to discover any new material is going to unlock anything new for the battery industry at this point in time.β
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Systems Biology and Multi-Omics in Asthma and COPD: A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches (2010-2024)
J Asthma Allergy. 2026 Mar 19;19:575312. doi: 10.2147/JAA.S575312. eCollection 2026.
ABSTRACT
Systems biology approaches have contributed to advancing our understanding of complex respiratory diseases including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This systematic review evaluates the application of systems biology methodologies in respiratory medicine, focusing on multi-omics data integration and computational techniques for biomarker discovery and mechanistic understanding. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we conducted a comprehensive literature search across Web of Science and Scopus databases, identifying 117 peer-reviewed documents published from 2010 to 2024. The review methodology employed bibliometric analysis combined with qualitative synthesis of included studies. Results demonstrate steady growth in systems biology applications for asthma and COPD research, with publication rates increasing by approximately 0.5 articles per year (R2 = 0.73, p < 0.001). Bibliometric analysis identified five major research clusters: systems biology as a foundational methodological framework (Basic Theme), COPD-focused research as the most developed area (Motor Theme), gene expression analysis, disease classification approaches, and specialized lung disease investigations (Niche Theme). Multi-omics integration studies achieved 82-91% accuracy in disease classification tasks, with transcriptomics-based asthma endotyping validated in over 1500 patients across multiple cohorts. Network analysis approaches identified hub genes (IL-6, TNF-Ξ±, MMP9) replicated across three independent studies. Machine learning applications demonstrated 80-90% accuracy for diagnostic and prognostic tasks, though external validation remains limited, with only 15% of reviewed studies including independent validation cohorts. Significant challenges persist in data integration, computational reproducibility, and clinical translation. Most studies employed modest sample sizes (median n=89), and population diversity was limited, with 89% conducted in European-ancestry populations. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of systems biology progress in respiratory medicine, identifies methodological gaps, and highlights the need for standardized protocols, larger collaborative studies, and rigorous external validation to advance clinical implementation of systems biology findings in asthma and COPD management.
PMID:41878747 | PMC:PMC13007689 | DOI:10.2147/JAA.S575312
Systems Biology and Multi-Omics in Asthma and COPD: A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches (2010-2024)
J Asthma Allergy. 2026 Mar 19;19:575312. doi: 10.2147/JAA.S575312. eCollection 2026.
ABSTRACT
Systems biology approaches have contributed to advancing our understanding of complex respiratory diseases including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This systematic review evaluates the application of systems biology methodologies in respiratory medicine, focusing on multi-omics data integration and computational techniques for biomarker discovery and mechanistic understanding. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we conducted a comprehensive literature search across Web of Science and Scopus databases, identifying 117 peer-reviewed documents published from 2010 to 2024. The review methodology employed bibliometric analysis combined with qualitative synthesis of included studies. Results demonstrate steady growth in systems biology applications for asthma and COPD research, with publication rates increasing by approximately 0.5 articles per year (R2 = 0.73, p < 0.001). Bibliometric analysis identified five major research clusters: systems biology as a foundational methodological framework (Basic Theme), COPD-focused research as the most developed area (Motor Theme), gene expression analysis, disease classification approaches, and specialized lung disease investigations (Niche Theme). Multi-omics integration studies achieved 82-91% accuracy in disease classification tasks, with transcriptomics-based asthma endotyping validated in over 1500 patients across multiple cohorts. Network analysis approaches identified hub genes (IL-6, TNF-Ξ±, MMP9) replicated across three independent studies. Machine learning applications demonstrated 80-90% accuracy for diagnostic and prognostic tasks, though external validation remains limited, with only 15% of reviewed studies including independent validation cohorts. Significant challenges persist in data integration, computational reproducibility, and clinical translation. Most studies employed modest sample sizes (median n=89), and population diversity was limited, with 89% conducted in European-ancestry populations. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of systems biology progress in respiratory medicine, identifies methodological gaps, and highlights the need for standardized protocols, larger collaborative studies, and rigorous external validation to advance clinical implementation of systems biology findings in asthma and COPD management.
PMID:41878747 | PMC:PMC13007689 | DOI:10.2147/JAA.S575312