Google’s AlphaGenome 2 zooms in on the cellular roots of disease

Researchers at Google DeepMind have unveiled a new AI model designed to unravel how changes in our DNA affect different cells, giving scientists a more detailed view of a notoriously difficult problem that could hold important clues to the causes of disease — and point the way to new treatments.

AlphaGenome 2 is the successor to DeepMind’s genome-predicting AI model AlphaGenome, which was released last year. While nearly every cell in the human body carries the same DNA, different types of cells — from heart muscle cells and skin cells to immune cells fighting an infection — switch different genes on and off, and those patterns can change depending on what a cell is doing. As a result, the same genetic variant can have very different effects depending on the type and state of the cell.

The new model is designed to capture those differences, predicting the effects of...

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