AlphaGenome AI tackles the ‘dark matter’ in our DNA

An artificial-intelligence (AI) model developed by Google DeepMind could help scientists to make sense of ‘dark matter’ in the human genome — areas of genetic code that do not code for proteins. The model, called AlphaGenome, takes long stretches of DNA and predicts various properties, such as the expression levels of the genes they contain and how those levels could be affected by mutations. Such predictions could help scientists determine how ‘dark’ areas of DNA contribute to diseases such as cancer and influence the inner workings of cells.