The RNA Institute at the University at Albany’s College of Arts and Sciences presented its annual “RNA Day” celebration Friday, with a special announcement involving the employment of Artificial Intelligence in research.
At UAlbany's day dedicated to RNA science and analysis, State University of New York Chancellor John King said artificial intelligence has a "transformative potential" for RNA research.
"You think about cancer and Alzheimer's, and the number of people who are affected by those diseases, you think about ALS and lives lost to that disease. These are diseases that we can help to better treat by using the computing power that AI presents. But there are other opportunities. There's opportunities for AI to be used to improve advanced manufacturing so that we can accelerate our advanced manufacturing renaissance in the state. There's the opportunity for AI to be a tool for tackling problems across a diverse array of disciplines, and at SUNY, we want to be leaders in that," said King.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the first supercomputer projects from the University at Albany under the state's Empire AI program.
Stemming from a partnership between UAlbany’s RNA Institute and the University of Rochester, researchers will now have access to New York State’s Empire AI supercomputer housed at the University at Buffalo.
Amid the global arms race for advancing and finding new uses for artificial intelligence technology, King expects New York's public AI infrastructure to become a trailblazer in using the tech to improve people's health and quality of life.
"Empire AI is just getting started. We have an alpha version that is already providing capacity for our researchers. We're going to continue to grow that super computing capacity at University of Buffalo. This project we announced today is the first UAlbany focused research project at Empire AI," King said.
RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is found in all living cells. Researchers are working to utilize RNA to make advancements in biomedical sciences, physics, chemistry, and other fields.
During the day of tours, discussions, and networking, UAlbany PhD candidate Amy Mascorro spoke about how she's using AI in her own research.
"Previously, I had to go through by hand and select different RNA sequences that could possibly target," said Mascorro. "These repeat expansions, also taking from previous papers and and that took a lot of time, obviously, but a month sitting down and reading will save you, you know, three years or so working in the lab, and it's going to kind of help gather up all those materials, and I think, make it a way more cohesive and streamlined process.
Aspiring physician Masa Masri, a dual citizen from Syria and the U.S., says AI has enhanced her research skills.
"[I] understand the different opinions and then formulate my own using all the different perspectives. But it really helped with understanding the literature and analyzing it and reading the data carefully to see you can draw your own conclusions afterwards," said Masri.
The day of events included presentations, awards, and public speakers.
