{"id":169517,"date":"2023-08-12T06:22:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T11:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/machine-learning-model-could-enable-targeted-gene-therapies-for-genetic-diseases"},"modified":"2023-08-12T06:22:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T11:22:55","slug":"machine-learning-model-could-enable-targeted-gene-therapies-for-genetic-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/machine-learning-model-could-enable-targeted-gene-therapies-for-genetic-diseases","title":{"rendered":"Machine learning model could enable targeted gene therapies for genetic diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/machine-learning-model-could-enable-targeted-gene-therapies-for-genetic-diseases3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Though almost every cell in your body contains a copy of each of your genes, only a small fraction of these genes will be expressed, or turned on. These activations are controlled by specialized snippets of DNA called enhancers, which act like skillful on-off switches. This selective activation allows cells to adopt specific functions in the body, determining whether they become\u2014for example\u2014heart cells, muscle cells, or brain cells.<\/p>\n<p>However, these <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/enhancers\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">enhancers<\/a> don\u2019t always turn on the right <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/genes\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">genes<\/a> at the right time, contributing to the development of genetic diseases like cancer and diabetes. A team of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers has developed a <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/machine-learning+model\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">machine-learning model<\/a> that can predict which enhancers play a role in normal development and disease\u2014an innovation that could someday power the development of enhancer-targeted therapies to treat diseases by turning genes on and off at will. The study results appeared in Nature Genetics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve known that enhancers control transitions between <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/cell+types\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">cell types<\/a> for a long time, but what is exciting about this work is that mathematical modeling is showing us how they might be controlled,\u201d said study leader Michael Beer, a professor of biomedical engineering and genetic medicine at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though almost every cell in your body contains a copy of each of your genes, only a small fraction of these genes will be expressed, or turned on. These activations are controlled by specialized snippets of DNA called enhancers, which act like skillful on-off switches. This selective activation allows cells to adopt specific functions in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,412,2229,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-mathematics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}