// THE VERGE — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Google’s Atlas of the human genome could pave the way for new treatments
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DeepMind’s new AI-powered tool can learn patterns between DNA changes and our biology.
DeepMind’s new AI-powered tool can learn patterns between DNA changes and our biology.
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Google DeepMind has unveiled an AI tool that its scientists claim could help unravel the mysteries of the human genome and transform our understanding of biology, accelerating scientific research and ultimately paving the way for new treatments for diseases.
The platform, called AlphaGenome Atlas, contains a “predictive map of every possible DNA letter change in the human genome,” the researchers said in a blog post published on Tuesday.
DNA is written in an alphabet of four chemical “letters” — usually shortened to A, C, G, and T — and the human genome contains roughly three billion letter pairs. Those letters contain the instructions that make life work, such as how, when, and where genes are switched on and off, and to what degree. Changes to individual letters can be harmless, contribute to ordinary differences between people, or play a role in disease – a major challenge is figuring out which changes matter and how. It is a tough task as there are roughly nine billion potential single-letter substitutions.