功能结

On a weekly basis, Cole McGuire ‘25 st和s at an intersection of two different worlds.

A 计算机科学 major who came to 澳门金沙线上赌博官网 with a passion for 生物学, 他正在利用这种不同寻常的兴趣组合进行跨学科研究，这可能对机器如何(即, computer algorithms) can solve some of humanity’s biggest biological mysteries.

“我对自然世界和人工世界这两种在某些方面似乎几乎完全对立的事物有着浓厚的研究热情. 试图让它们以一种对我们有益的方式相互作用是很有趣的,麦奎尔说.

在澳门金沙线上赌博官网，麦奎尔与一位跨学科的计算机科学教授一起工作 马修·希布斯, Ph.D.，生物学教授 斯特伦克伯大尼, Ph.D. 现在是研究的第三年, 团队的项目, “A Deep-Learning Approach to Gene Function Prediction,正在建立一种利用人工智能加速人类对基因理解的诱人方法, which in turn has potentially crucial applications for 字段 such as cancer research.

这是项目摘要:基因是DNA的片段，它命令你身体的不同部位执行不同的任务. Humans have about 20,000 genes in total, 和 we still don’t know what they all do. Testing each one individually is impossible, 通过大量潜在的组合来找出哪些是对的，哪些是错的(比如治疗癌症)是一项劳动密集型的工作, 昂贵的, 和, 坦率地说, 生物学家的超人任务.

Cole McGuire '25 (left), alongside 生物学 professor 斯特伦克伯大尼, Ph.D. 和 计算机科学 professor 马修·希布斯, Ph.D.

The time scale of doing this manually would be “not just one or 10, 而是100次生命,Hibbs评论道. “但是有了人工智能,Hibbs说, “we can find correlations between the levels of genes in our bodies, 和 we can use that data to predict what the genes are actually doing. When we can predict what a gene does, 我们可以研究特定的疾病，而不必经历所有20种测试中的一个接一个的整个过程,000. 也许我们可以缩小搜索范围，让我们的实验同事更容易处理.”

感谢斯特伦克, 球队只需要从6点开始,000, which is the number of genes in yeast, 这是一种能够使这类研究更有效地进行而不需要使用人类细胞的主力研究生物.

“Our ability to manipulate yeast genetically is so simple 和 so fast,斯特伦克说, 麦奎尔每周在计算机科学和生物学模式之间来回切换，而她却在自己的实验室里接待他. “这是一次很棒的学习经历，也是与人们互动的方式，否则我可能没有机会与他们互动，看看他们是否能帮助生物学家回答我们提出的问题。.”

There’s a name for this crossover field: bioinformatics. “我喜欢把它看作是试图利用计算机科学的工具和能力来解决生物学问题,Hibbs解释道. “这在基因组(基因研究)时代变得更加重要，因为目前生物学的数据量和问题数量超过了任何一个人的头脑.”

Cole McGuire '25 brings a unique blend of 计算机科学 expertise to his research, which has huge implications for the field of 生物学, 他的另一个爱好.

作为澳门金沙线上赌博官网的学生，麦奎尔似乎注定要在生物信息学领域出类拔萃, 在哪里 文科 让学生们寻求动手的机会，桥梁学科茁壮成长的位置. Alongside his 计算机科学 major, he’s a 生物学 minor (just a few classes short of a major) 和 a 哲学 次要启动.

“用电脑, we’re able to achieve 和 do some things that feel like magic,麦奎尔说 of his passion for 计算机科学.

“Whereas with 生物学, it is fascinating to take a glimpse into...这些极其复杂的系统都在和谐地工作，产生了在我们看来很普通的东西. Maybe we’ll never come to a full underst和ing of the human body, 但只要发现这些在特定地方缠绕的丝线的一小部分，就能大大提高我们的生活质量.”

麦奎尔之所以决定加入澳门金沙线上赌博官网，部分原因是一次参观让他有机会了解到教授的计算机科学课程 马克•刘易斯 where students were excited to participate in class. And upon arriving on campus, McGuire took a 第一年的经验 (新老虎的跨学科课程)在科幻小说中，他遇到了许多他未来的生物学同学, 计算机科学, 和其他 阀杆 字段.

Just three weeks into his college career, 麦奎尔发现自己找到了希布斯，想看看他是否有办法开始做生物学和计算机科学相结合的研究.

“我有点紧张. I’m just a first-year who’s taken one 计算机科学 class. I haven’t taken a 生物学 class,麦奎尔说 with a laugh. “But he recommended a few papers that I could read to get an underst和ing of the field, 再过几个星期, he asked me if I would like to do some research.”

Cole McGuire '25 和 计算机科学 professor 马修·希布斯, Ph.D. confer about their research into how AI can help speed up biological discovery.

Finding someone like McGuire was a godsend for Hibbs, who needed a student with an interdisciplinary perspective; In short, 他需要一个三位一体的老虎.

“When you get that student who underst和s both worlds, there are different problems that they can tackle,Hibbs说 of McGuire’s dual interests. “If I was working with just a 计算机科学 student, 我们可能会考虑机器学习的一个真正的技术方面或优化一些算法. 但是像科尔这样的学生, we’re really able to analyze the results of what we’re predicting, to think about the biological quality of those predictions. 你可以问一个有着跨学科背景和渴望的人一系列完全不同的问题.”

对麦奎尔来说，与希布斯和斯特伦克的合作已经不再是紧张地发邮件了.

“我们已经达到了博士. Hibbs feels very much like a colleague,麦奎尔说. “他非常善于合作, extremely open to experimentation 和 trying things that are just super off the wall. 有时候学生去找教授说‘我有一个疯狂的想法，我们可以做这个新东西’，这可能有点吓人,和博士. Hibbs说，‘我们试试吧.’ And that’s always been a super exciting prospect.”

与斯特伦克在生物学方面的合作对麦奎尔来说是一个加分项, 谁说他感到荣幸，因为他可以在生物实验室工作，而不必是生物学专业的.

“Dr. Strunk is one of the friendliest 和 most kind people I’ve ever met,” he says. “The way this really applies to research is that she ... 是否有人能够将大量的想法以一种不同寻常的方式联系起来, but she can keep them all on her mind. This allows for such a rich discussion that you’ll have with her.”

生物学教授贝瑟尼·斯特伦克博士.D (L) 和 Cole McGuire '25 examine a yeast sample as part of their research.

As they cross these disciplinary lines, this research team is doing work that even five years ago would seem truly futuristic. 但希布斯表示，利用人工智能(AI)减少基因研究时间的想法并不新鲜——只是现在有了更好的工具.

“神经网络, 这就是我们所说的“深度学习”,’ are a very old idea that dates back to the 70s, 但它们有点过时了，因为它们的训练和运行需要大量的计算, 和 they require a lot of training data,Hibbs说. “The good thing with genomics is we have a lot of data, 和 now with a lot of the (technological) advancement... 我们的想法是回到这些旧的方法，看看这些新的技术和神经网络的发展是否能超越我们以前所做的.”

Both McGuire 和 Hibbs are guardedly excited about AI’s potential for their field.

“AI has not gotten to the point where it really scares me in terms of its potential, 但我确实认为你开始看到它涉足(我们生活的)各个领域。,麦奎尔说. “作为一个在非计算机科学领域从事人工智能非常专业应用的人，我看到了它的巨大潜力, but it also shows me some of the limitations, 和 it shows me the places we still have to go.”

And as helpful as AI has been to the team’s work, 它永远不会取代这个群体拥有的最强大的工具:天生的好奇心, 协作, 和 passion for the journey of research, 不仅仅是最终结果.

“当你在上课的时候, you’re learning ‘the known’—what our knowledge of the field is currently. But what makes research exciting is the unknown. There’s not a set answer in front of you,麦奎尔说.

这魅力, 像斯特伦克这样的教授, 与任何论文或标题出版物一样，都是澳门金沙线上赌博官网本科生研究的宝贵成果.

分享学生的兴奋, that type of teaching becomes a reward in itself, 甚至比在这个领域引起轰动或维持某种声誉的效率还要高,斯特伦克说. “It really makes my life a lot happier that this is a big part of the job.”