AI vs IBD: Machine Learning Finds Possible Treatment for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Machine learning identified gene-clusters that maintain the integrity of the gut epithelial barrier, suggesting possible treatments for IBD
AI and healthcare
In the past decade or so, AI has invaded many media headlines.
Machine learning — I’ll use it here interchangeably with ‘narrow’ AI, which is not exactly correct, but makes for easier reading — has been making inroads into many fields, including medicine and healthcare.
For example, see previous posts about AI/machine learning in genetic enhancement, mental health, aging research, and epidemiology. This AI-based approach has also been used to untangle the epigenetics of cancer, find new disease mutations, and — most relevant for our story here — improve disease diagnostics.
One of the reasons why AI has found its way into these fields is that life is complicated. Extrinsic and intrinsic factors, genes, molecules, cells… Trying to make sense of all that leaves us drowning in a rising sea of data. AI is a sailboat. With a sonar.
Impressive though these AI systems are, they are constrained in the breadth of their…
