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New AI model predicts how cells choose their fate

Researchers from the University of Oxford, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Helmholtz Munich, and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new artificial intelligence framework that helps uncover how cells make developmental decisions.

Fluorescent imaging of a zebrafish embryo highlights cell populations during early development. The image reflects the type of dynamic biological system researchers used to test RegVelo, a new AI framework for predicting how cells acquire their identities and identifying the genetic regulators that guide them. © Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Published in Cell, the study introduces RegVelo, an AI based model that combines cellular dynamics with gene regulatory networks to predict how cells transition into specialised cell types such as pigment cells, blood cells, or neurons. The framework also allows researchers to simulate how genetic changes may alter these developmental pathways.

A significant proportion of the biological research underpinning the study was carried out in Oxford through the work of Professor Tatjana Sauka Spengler’s research group. Professor Sauka Spengler moved her laboratory from the University of Oxford to the Stowers Institute in 2022 and remains affiliated with the Radcliffe Department of Medicine and MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (MRC WIMM) as a Visiting Researcher.

 

Read the full story on the Radcliffe Department of Medicine website. 

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