Google’s AlphaGenome 2 zooms in on the cellular roots of disease

Researchers at Google DeepMind have unveiled a new AI model designed to unravel how changes in our DNA affect different cells, giving scientists a more detailed view of a notoriously difficult problem that could hold important clues to the causes of disease — and point the way to new treatments.

AlphaGenome 2 is the successor to DeepMind’s genome-predicting AI model AlphaGenome, which was released last year. While nearly every cell in the human body carries the same DNA, different types of cells — from heart muscle cells and skin cells to immune cells fighting an infection — switch different genes on and off, and those patterns can change depending on what a cell is doing.