AIxB: Building a collaborative ecosystem for innovation in Artificial Intelligence and the Biological Sciences
Description
A winner of the UNC Vice Chancellor for Research’s Creativity Hubs Initiative, AIxB takes a fresh look at AI technologies through the lens of biology to develop more inspired, interpretable and innovative AI while advancing biological science in a virtuous cycle of discovery. AIxB creates a collision space for convergent science, bringing together advances in knowledge graphs and explainable AI and biology. Together, the team will explore how the combinatorial histone code controls gene expression and thus cell functions to result in the rich biodiversity we can see every day, all without changing DNA sequence. This research has the potential to interpret the complexity of the histone code, in effect reducing experimental time and eventually informing therapies for treatable DNA-based diseases.
RENCI's Role
Stan Ahalt, Alex Tropsha, Chris Bizon, and Marian Mersmann serve as co-Investigators. RENCI will lead the development of yeast-oriented extensions to the ROBOKOP knowledge graph, incorporating experimental results relating histone modifications to gene regulation, and the application of AI methods to analyze this graph and produce understanding of histone biology. RENCI also provides day to day program oversight and advises on program sustainability and development.
