Agents Need Powerful Tools Just Like Humans
Discovery is made at the edge of what is known. In order to drive breakthroughs, we must reduce the time it takes people to get to that edge, so they can more easily push past it. This is our goal with Consensus. This means building tools for end users who are doing important research. But, in a world with agents helping push progress, it also means equipping agents with the best tools possible to execute tasks.
Biomni is building an AI scientist for biomedical research that supports the entire scientific process—from literature search to experimental design. Their agent now relies on the Consensus scientific search API to power literature discovery. At any stage of research where literature search is needed, Consensus is the engine behind it.
In head-to-head testing against other search approaches, Consensus ranked highest for result relevance and quality. The Consensus API searches across a curated corpus of 200M+ academic papers, conference proceedings, and preprints, using a proprietary search stack designed for precision.
Below is an excerpt from Biomni’s announcement, including their evaluation:
Consensus vs. Traditional Search: The Results
We compared Biomni + Consensus against standard approaches using the query “Find papers published in 2023-2024 comparing prime editing versus base editing efficiency for correcting point mutations in the CFTR gene”.
| Search Method | Time Required | Results Found | Blind Review (1-5) | Key Limitations |
| Google Scholar | 2s | 1 paper | 2 | Only found 1 paper; missed most relevant research despite high precision of single result |
| PubMed Search | 5s | 0 papers | 1 | No papers found after multiple query attempts; failed completely for this specialized query |
| arXiv Search | 3s | 20 papers | 2 | Mostly unrelated editing topics (video, text, knowledge editing); minimal biological applications |
| Advanced Web Search | 35s | 16 papers | 4 | Time-intensive but found good comparative data; papers were presented in a structured summary that answered the query |
| Consensus API | 6s | 22 papers | 5 | Most relevant and comprehensive results with structured data and abstracts |
The collaboration between Biomini and Consensus highlights a broader shift: scientific discovery is increasingly accelerated by intelligent tools that can navigate complexity with precision. By powering Biomini’s AI scientist, Consensus extends its mission beyond human researchers to the agents that will shape the future of science. Together, we’re reducing the friction of discovery so breakthroughs can happen faster.