Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and the Fundación Biofisica Bizkaia (FBB, located in Biofisika Institute) have developed an artificial intelligence which can differentiate cancer cells from normal cells, as well as detect the very early stages of viral infection inside cells. The findings, published today in a study in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence , pave the way for improved diagnostic techniques and new monitoring strategies for disease.
The tool, AINU (AI of the NUcleus), scans high-resolution images of cells. The images are obtained with a special microscopy technique called STORM, which creates a picture that captures many finer details than what regular microscopes can see. The high-definition snapshots reveal structures at nanoscale resolution.
A nanometre (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, and a strand of human hair is about 100,000nm wide. The AI can detect rearrangements inside cells as small as 20nm, or 5,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. These alterations are too small and subtle for human observers to find with traditional methods alone. The resolution of these images is powerful enough for our AI to recognize specific patterns and differences with remarkable accuracy, including changes in how DNA is arranged inside cells, helping spot alterations very soon after they occur. We think that, one day, this type of information can buy doctors valuable time to monitor disease, personalize treatments and improve patient outcomes." Pia Cosma, ICREA Research Professor, co-corresponding author of the study and researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona ‘Facial recognition’ at the molecular level
AINU is a convolutional neural network, a type of AI specifically designed to analyze visual data like images. Examples of convolutional neural networks include AI tools which enables users to unlock smartphones with their face, or others used by self-driving cars to understand and navigate environments by recognising objects on the road.
In medicine, convolutional neural networks are used to analyse medical images like mammograms or CT scans and identify signs of cancer that might be missed by the human eye. They […]
Artificial intelligence differentiates cancer cells and detects early viral infections
