🔛 AI Can Now Create Gene "Switches"
Scientists at the Centre for Genomic Regulation and Pompeu Fabra University have trained an AI model to design DNA fragments that can switch specific genes on or off, but only in the cells where they're needed.
🤩 How Does It Work?
Only about 2% of our DNA contains genes—the protein-making instructions. The rest, 98%, once thought to be "junk," actually contains millions of enhancers—tiny switches that control when and where genes are activated.
Yet today, scientists don't fully understand how these switches work—what exact DNA sequences activate genes in specific cells.
To address this challenge, researchers created 64,000 synthetic enhancers in the lab and studied their behavior. They then trained an AI model on that data. The AI learned to design brand-new DNA sequences that, when inserted into cells, could turn specific genes on or off, without affecting the rest of the body. The technique was successfully tested in mouse cells.
🤩 A Breakthrough for Gene Therapy
This advancement could transform our approach to gene therapy. Instead of using one-size-fits-all tools, scientists would have access to a "genetic scalpel" to precisely target problem genes.
For example, synthetic enhancers could be tuned to shut down faulty genes in cancer cells without affecting healthy ones. Currently, researchers can only rely on natural enhancers, which aren't always precise and can trigger unwanted effects.
Of course, this is just the first step. The model was tested on a small number of genes and cell types. However, the human body has thousands of different cell states and more than 1,600 regulatory proteins. The AI will need more training and data to truly speak the "language" of cells.
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