What if we could combine technology and medicine to boost the body’s natural ability to fight off life-threatening diseases like cancer — without patients having to undergo harsh treatments like chemotherapy and radiation?
Ambitious questions like this are at the forefront of an innovative research collaboration at UW Medicine, created by Hannele Ruohola-Baker, PhD, the associate director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM). She sees artificial intelligence as the future of regenerative medicine and has teamed up with researchers from the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) on a collaboration informally known as DREAM, short for Designed Regeneration for Medicine.
In their shared lab space, located in Seattle’s high-tech South Lake Union neighborhood, ISCRM and IPD researchers are using stem cell biology, protein design and artificial intelligence to develop new treatments for cancer, COVID-19 and other urgent health challenges.
“Artificial intelligence is really entering the space of protein design and biology,” says Ruohola-Baker. “In the next five years, these fields are going to change the future of medicine.”
