AlphaGenome Atlas predictive map of every DNA letter change in the human genome

Meanwhile someone went and did the experiment on the equivalent problem in a virus: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/mutate-em-all-and-...

The Deus Ex game series is known for relatively high-effort writing you can find while exploring, and I think this fictional e-mail from Deux Ex: Human Revolution has some renewed relevance after 15 years:

> We've been working with VersaLife’s new Chaos Model Genomatrix, which is trying to apply fractal mathematics to the study of genetic mutation. In essence, we've been trying to predict the future of human evolution using past mutations stored in the database of our mitochondria (which is passed uninterrupted from ancestral Eve through our mothers; it gives us an accurate and universal roadmap for our common past).

> The thing is… the sample you sent fits one of our evolutionary models of the future. We’re talking about someone who is ahead of the genetic curve by one step, maybe two. Do you know what this could mean for medicine alone? You have a living, breathing Nobel Prize on your hands!

(From Megan Reed's computer, in the prologue.)

If you like that abstract geometric headline image, you might also like the source artist their model “learned” it from: https://leegriggs.com/xgen-rendered-with-arnold-for-maya

the catch with a genome-wide map is the benchmark labels came from conservation, so you can't tell prediction from re-reading the prior.

this is literally not possible. while I'm excited for these kinds of things, alphafold is already imperfect, and this basically side-steps actual structural predictions. it sounds good, but frankly biology is not there yet. in practice not even alpha fold can tell me if my gfp fusion will work...

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49611251