The Future of ML in Biology: CRISPR for Health and Climate

Jennifer A. Doudna, Innovative Genomics Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of California Berkeley & UCSF/Gladstone Institutes Machine learning will have profound impacts on biological research in ways that are just beginning to be imagined. The intersection of ML and CRISPR provides exciting examples of the opportunities and challenges in fields ranging from healthcare to climate change. CRISPR-Cas programmable proteins can edit specific DNA sequences in cells and organisms, generating new biological insights as well as approved therapeutics and improved crops. I will discuss how ML may accelerate and perhaps fundamentally alter our use of CRISPR genome editing in both humans and microbes.