AI tools help decode the hidden language of the genome

The recent Nature’s Technology feature marks a pivotal moment in the quest to understand our genetic blueprint. While protein-coding regions have long dominated genomics research, attention is now shifting to the vast non-coding portions of DNA, once dismissed as “junk”, through innovative artificial intelligence approaches. This evolution mirrors the breakthroughs seen in protein structure prediction with AlphaFold, but now focuses on regulatory DNA: the sequences that control gene expression and influence human health and disease.

These advances are not just accelerating analysis, they’re enabling scientists to revisit long-standing questions with fresh perspectives and ask entirely new ones that were previously out of reach.

As researchers across academic and commercial labs decode the genome’s non-coding regions, we’re witnessing the transformation of genomic dark matter into an interpretable biological language. Click here to read the full article.

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