AIs that read sentences can also spot virus mutations
In a study just published in Science, a team from MIT demonstrates how they used NLP to predict mutations that allow viruses to avoid being detected by antibodies in the human immune system, a process known as viral immune escape.
The basic idea is that the interpretation of a virus by an immune system is analogous to the interpretation of a sentence by a human. The researchers use two different linguistic concepts: grammar and semantics (or meaning). The genetic or evolutionary fitness of a virus—characteristics such as how good it is at infecting a host—can be interpreted in terms of grammatical correctness. A successful, infectious virus is grammatically correct; an unsuccessful one is not.
Why it matters: It’s very early but in theory, knowing what mutations might be coming could make it easier for hospitals and public health authorities to plan ahead. The team says it is now running models on new variants of the coronavirus.
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—Will Douglas Heaven