For decades, scientists have been working to understand the genome, the functional manual of all life on earth. This Manual resides in the infinite diversity within the DNA of each animal and affects everything from the development of the body to the most comprehensive laws, and yet it is one of the most understood aspects of biology.
Our journey has been to develop the technology of geneticists to study the nature of billions of people, plants and animals started 10 years ago. A small group of researchers at Google decided to include deep learning in various genetic challenges, making it fast, accurate and efficient. What began in 2015 as a global research effort, involving partnerships with scientists and institutions around the world to accelerate scientific discovery, advance health care and preserve living things.
This work is already showing a lot of promise in the name of human health – including today's announcement of deepsomatic, a new tool to characterize cancer variants with greater precision. But our work is not done, and more tools are coming. Today, we're taking a moment to look back at some of the key milestones and ground-breaking tools from our first decade in genomics, powered by AI.
