CREME, an AI-powered virtual lab, developed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, offers a revolutionary approach to genetic research by simulating CRISPR interference (CRISPRi).
This tool enables scientists to perform virtual genetic experiments and predict their effects on gene activity, which significantly reduces the time and resources required for lab work. CREME’s insights into gene regulation could greatly enhance drug discovery and provide access to researchers without physical labs.
Revolutionizing Genetics With AI: Introducing CREME
Imagine you’re looking at millions upon millions of mysterious genetic mutations. With CRISPR gene-editing technology, a select few of these mutations might have therapeutic potential. However, proving it would mean many thousands of hours of lab work. Just figuring out which ones are worth exploring further would take a lot of time and money. But what if you could do it in the virtual realm with artificial intelligence?
CREME is a new AI-powered virtual laboratory invented by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Peter Koo and his team. It allows geneticists to run thousands of virtual experiments with the click of a button. Now, scientists can use it to begin identifying and understanding key regions of the genome.
“In reality, CRISPRi is incredibly challenging to perform in the laboratory. And you’re limited by the number of perturbations and the scale. But since we’re doing all our perturbations [virtually], we can push the boundaries. And the scale of experiments that we performed is unprecedented—hundreds of thousands of perturbation experiments,” explains Koo.