Illumina launches AI software to predict disease-causing genetic mutations
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Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) has unveiled new artificial intelligence software, PrimateAI-3D, that can predict disease-causing genetic mutations in individuals.
The genetic analysis and sequencing company said that the software is a significant breakthrough as the genetic variants that can cause disease in the human genome are pretty much unknown.
The software "uses natural selection to train the parameters of the deep neural network, using millions of benign genetic variants identified through the sequencing of 233 diverse primate species," Illumina (ILMN) said. The sequencing of nonhuman primates can help researchers understand the pathogenicity of human genetic variants.
That network has demonstrated an ability to identify disease-causing variants in the six clinical cohorts tested. As a result, individualized predictions of genetic disease risk were confirmed in a group of ~500K people.
Illumina (ILMN) CTO Alex Aravanis noted that PrimateAI-3D can also be used for drug target discovery.
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