Multiple firsts for the Jackson Laboratory this week: Lab develops world’s first autonomous AI engagement officer

Carrie Jones

Dec 06, 2025

BAR HARBOR—Late this week, Bar Harbor’s Jackson Laboratory (JAX) officially received a $30.6 million federal grant that’s meant to be singularly focused on biomedical breakthroughs.

JAX is a non-profit biomedical research institution founded on Mount Desert Island in 1929.

The lab will use this money, which is split into three yearly increments, to construct digital models of a heart. Those models will be used for drug testing so that scientists can see how drugs affect different populations of people with different physiological aspects and genetic profiles.

“We are committed to modernizing our regulatory processes to lower costs, shorten timelines, and increase our confidence in the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H said in the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) December 4 announcement. “Advancements in drug safety testing have given us better predictive insights and allowed us to radically reduce or eliminate animal testing — it’s critical that we continue to advance in this field.”

The lab was one of eight projects in the country whose grants were announced.

“Too many promising medicines fail late, after years of work and enormous cost, because our best tools still don’t reliably predict how a drug will behave in people. With today’s CATALYST awards, ARPA-H is backing cutting-edge teams to build human-based, AI-enabled models that can forecast drug safety and efficacy long before the first clinical trial,” said Alicia Jackson, Ph.D., ARPA-H Director. “This is an ARPA-level push to move beyond over-reliance on animal models, cut years and cost from development, and give regulators and product sponsors better evidence to protect patients — including children, during pregnancy, and others who are too often left out of trials.”

Rachel Ohm of the Portland Press Herald reported that there will likely be a few new jobs generated from the position at the lab, which is a major employer in Hancock County, employing more than 1,000 in the area.

According to the release, “The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine intends to replicate broad human cardiovascular variation to comprehensively characterize non-arrhythmic cardiotoxicity using transcriptomic, metabolic, and phenotypic analyses. By building digital cardio models based on mouse and human physiology, drugs can be evaluated against a wide range of heart genetic profiles and physiology differences based on patient populations.”

U.S. Senator Susan Collins also announced, December 4, that JAX is the first-ever research institution in Maine to be awarded a grant from ARPA-H.

“Since the return of Congressionally Directed Spending in 2021, Senator Collins has secured $11.5 million to support facility and equipment improvements at JAX, as well as construct a new facility for rare disease research,” the Collins’ press release said.

“ARPA-H seeks transformative biomedical breakthroughs happening all across the country to support with significant research funding. This more than $30 million grant is a testament to the incredible work happening at The Jackson Laboratory that has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and cost of drug development,” Senator Collins said. “I have been so proud to watch The Jackson Laboratory grow so much throughout my service in the Senate and cannot wait to see and continue to support the exciting progress this new ARPA-H grant will bring.”

Also this week, the lab’s Senior Vice President of Advancement & External Relations Gina Rodriguez announced it has begun a “research and development project to implement the world’s first autonomous engagement officer, an AI-powered avatar named Jackie.”

The avatar is named after JAX.

“This virtual assistant is a regenerative learning tool designed to help you stay connected with JAX, answer questions and support our faculty and community,” Rodriguez said. “At JAX, we are committed to data-driven discovery and innovation. Our hope is that by introducing Jackie to the world, we can build a future where scientific discovery and AI can work together to advance our mission to improve human health.”

Jackie is being developed with Givzey, a fundraising platform, with the logline of “solving fundraising’s labor shortage with trusted digital labor.”

As of December 2025, the Version2.ai powered by the company has raised almost $5 million.

“Bold innovation propels the mission of The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) to improve human health which is why partnering with Givzey in this exciting venture is a natural way forward in our fundraising design,” JAX’s Senior Director of Advancement Services Lisa Burton said. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with industry leaders in leveraging Version2 to expand and deepen engagement with our donors, and to enhance their experience with JAX.”

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