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Will be interesting to see how ML and CRISPR converge. Two systems we don't fully understand creating explicit capability we desire and latent capability we do
by jcims 6y ago
Will be interesting to see how ML and CRISPR converge. Two systems we don't fully understand creating explicit capability we desire and latent capability we don't expect.
I'm curious if there will eventually be some kind of biological incarnation of cellular automata that is useful for chemical synthesis or material fabrication. Clearly we have that with individual organisms now (e.g. insulin manufacture) but imagine seeding a matrix with bacteria that extrude carbon nanotubes under UV light or similar oddities.
- mxwsn 6y agoMy Ph.D. work has used machine learning to model CRISPR editing outcomes, see https://www.maxwshen.com/ https://www.maxwshen.com/
- koeng 6y agoRemember that CRISPR is just an editing technique, and we have the technical capabilities to synthesize genomes. To get to cellular automata, I think there needs to be much more focus on building rather than tweaking. Though tweaking is very nice for eukaryotes, where we have no idea how to build and need to learn from small edits.
- hobofan 6y ago> we have the technical capabilities to synthesize genomes Of very limited size (for now).
- hobofan 6y ago> Will be interesting to see how ML and CRISPR converge I've been seeing similar comments a lot lately, and I don't understand why. As someone with a background in ML that is now studying biochemistry I'd be the first person to jump at something like that, but I'm just not seeing any big ML potential that directly has to do with CRISPR. Is it just two hyped technologies being thrown in a pot? Is there something I'm missing?
- shpongled 6y agoAs someone about to graduate with a PhD in biochemistry who has been programming for ~10 years and personally used CRISPR/Cas9 ... the parent comment gave me a good laugh. That being said, I can see some applications to using ML to analyze the results of CRISPR/Cas9 screens or better predict functional editing sites - but that's not exactly exclusive to Cas9.
- hobofan 6y agoExactly what I had in mind. ML has its place in bioinformatics (and is being applied to a huge amount of sub-problems there), but it almost always is an incremental improvement for that niche rather than transforming the whole landscape.
- jcims 6y agoI'm talking precisely about what this guy worked on - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540564 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540564 ML provides predictive capabilities over large fugly datasets. CRISPR gives us the ability to test those predictions. These are both essentially commodity technologies at this point and not everyone is going to take a disciplined approach to experimentation.
- nisten 6y agoI know you what you're missing. You gotta put AI in the Blockchain before adding CRISPER and applying for funding. EDIT: And don't forget Kubernetes.
- mjfl 6y ago> Will be interesting to see how ML and CRISPR converge. don't forget blockchain