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🧬 AlphaGenome: Predicting Variant Effects on Gene Regulation
Description
see the accompanying substack episode
We've been reading our genetic code wrong this whole time.
For decades, scientists focused on the 2% of our DNA that codes for proteins—the obvious stuff, the genes that make the building blocks of life. We treated the other 98% like genetic junk mail, regulatory noise that didn't really matter. We called it "junk DNA" with the casual dismissiveness of people who think they understand something because they can label it.
Turns out, that 98% is where the real conversation is happening.
Google's DeepMind just released AlphaGenome, an AI system that can read the regulatory language hidden in our non-coding DNA with unprecedented accuracy. It's not just another incremental improvement in genetic analysis—it's a fundamental shift in how we understand the blueprint of life itself.
AlphaGenome: advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with a unified DNA sequence model
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