November 5, 2020
Tufts University biologists used artificial intelligence systems to reverse-engineer the regeneration mechanism of small flatworms (planarians) that have the ability to turn cut-off pieces of themselves into a complete organism. The biologists developed an algorithm that used evolutionary computation to produce regulatory networks able to accurately predict results of published regeneration research. The AI-discovered regulatory network correctly predicted all 16 research experiments in the dataset and yielded two proteins that had not yet been identified in existing research.
The network is not only the most comprehensive model of planarian regeneration, it is also the first model of its kind discovered by artificial intelligence – a major step in the ability of AI to enhance scientific research.
Read more about the study here.