An ML Model to Understand the Causes of Birth Defects

Birth defects can be caused by genes inherited from parents, but they may also be caused by drugs, pollution, and food that developing babies are exposed to during pregnancy.  However, the exact reasons for birth defects are not known. A team of researchers at Icahn School of Medicine, New York,  the University of New Mexico, the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, the University of California San Diego,  and the University of Auckland, New Zealand, have gathered data about birth defects attributed to genes, drugs, drug-induced gene expression changes in cells, etc from various studies. Using this information, they created a semi-supervised learning model that enables exploration of reasons for birth defects. More information about the research can be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-023-00329-2