AI discovers more than 160,000 new viruses

Machine learning tool LucaProt helps detect 161,979 new ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses - Photo: University of Sydney

In a study published in the journal Cell , a team of scientists from the University of Sydney (Australia), Apsara Lab of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence (a leading cloud service provider in the Asia- Pacific region) and Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan) said they used a new machine learning tool to discover 161,979 new ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses. This is the largest number of viruses discovered to date.

Machine learning tools could dramatically improve mapping of life on Earth and help identify millions more viruses, researchers say.

This is the largest number of new viruses ever discovered in a single study, expanding our knowledge of viruses that exist in the environment today, said lead author Edward Holmes, a researcher at the University of Sydney's School of Medical Sciences.

The discovery of so many new viruses in one study is amazing and this is just the beginning, opening up a world of discovery. Millions more viruses are being discovered and the same method can be applied to identify bacteria and parasites.

To make this discovery, the researchers built a machine learning tool called LucaProt, which can process complex genetic information and vast amounts of genetic sequence data. Many viruses have been sequenced, but LucaProt can sort and categorize the different pieces of information to identify viruses, Holmes said.

Co-author of the study, Li Zhaorong, a scientist at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence's Apsara Lab, said the study demonstrated that AI can effectively complete biological discovery tasks. The team will now train the tool to identify more virus diversity.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ai-phat-hien-hon-160-000-loai-virus-moi-20241010185116738.htm