This summer, while living with 7 other people in a biotech hacker house in Cambridge, MA, I interned on the Machine Learning Research team at Dyno Therapeutics! Dyno is a startup aiming to design gene therapy vectors using machine learning. Using machine learning and high-throughput in-vitro (cell) + vivo (animal) experimentation, they aim to develop gene vectors, known as capsids, that can safely deliver a genetic payload (a gene therapy) to the correct cell. Dyno specifically works on designing adeno-associated viruses (AAV), the most widely-used vector for gene therapies.
Gene vectors emerged as a significant problem, primarily because biologics, or therapeutics made from a living organism, are an increasingly exciting opportunity to improve human health.