Chatting with your cells: Natural-language AI for single-cell data analysis

Using sophisticated RNA sequencing technology, biomedical researchers can measure the activity of our genes across millions of single cells, creating detailed maps of tissues, organs, and diseases. Analyzing these datasets requires a rare combination of skills: a deep understanding of the biology, and the ability to develop computer code that turns data into insights.

What if we could equip biomedical researchers with an AI assistant that sees the data, supports the analysis, knows about the biology, and is easy to talk to? This could give scientists a virtual, AI-based colleague with both biological and bioinformatics expertise to support them in their research.

Toward this goal, researchers led by Christoph Bock, Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Professor at the Medical University of Vienna, have developed CellWhisperer.

CellWhisperer is an AI method and software tool that links gene expression with descriptive text across more than a million biological samples. It provides an AI chat box to investigate complex biology in English language, unburdened by the complexities of computer code.

This study, published in Nature Biotechnology, demonstrates how AI creates a new way for scientists to interact with their data when studying the biological foundations of diseases.

Image source: Moritz Schäfer.