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Biotechnology

This algorithm generates tumors to help fight cancer

September 17, 2018

Researchers have built a system to create a larger and more diverse data set on which to train medical AI.

You’re only as effective as your data set: Most artificial-intelligence programs rely on a large set of information to learn from. But if the data isn’t representative of all populations or circumstances, the system could be biased or ineffective.

The news: A new study out from chip company Nvidia, the Mayo Clinic, and the MGH & BWH Center for Clinical Data Science has created an algorithm that produces a more diverse set of medical data. Using generative adversarial networks (or GANs), synthetic scans depicting abnormalities can be created from existing MRIs of brain tumors.

Why it matters: “Diversity is critical to success when training neural networks, but medical imaging data is usually imbalanced,” Hoo Chang Shin, a research scientist at Nvidia, told ZDNet. “There are so many more normal cases than abnormal cases, when abnormal cases are what we care about, to try to detect and diagnose.”

Deep Dive

Biotechnology

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Doctors have performed brain surgery on a fetus in one of the first operations of its kind

A baby girl who developed a life-threatening brain condition was successfully treated before she was born—and is now a healthy seven-week-old.

A brain implant changed her life. Then it was removed against her will.

Her case highlights why we need to enshrine neuro rights in law.

The FDA just approved rub-on gene therapy that helps “butterfly” children

Biotech companies are getting creative with how they deliver DNA fixes into people's bodies.

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Illustration by Rose Wong

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