“Researchers at Google DeepMind have unveiled their latest artificial intelligence tool and claimed it will help scientists identify the genetic drivers of disease and ultimately pave the way for new treatments.

AlphaGenome predicts how mutations interfere with the way genes are controlled, changing when they are switched on, in which cells of the body, and whether their biological volume controls are set to high or low…

The researchers trained AlphaGenome on public databases of human and mouse genetics, enabling it to learn connections between mutations in specific tissues and their impact on gene regulation. The AI can analyse up to 1m letters of DNA code at once and predict how mutations will affect different biological processes.

The DeepMind team believes the tool will help scientists map out which strands of genetic code are most essential for the development of particular tissues, such as nerve and liver cells, and pinpoint the most important mutations for driving cancer and other diseases. It could also underpin new gene therapies by allowing researchers to design entirely new DNA sequences – for example, to switch on a certain gene in nerve cells but not in muscle cells.”

From The Guardian.