Perspective: the opportunities and possibilities unleashed by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and artificial intelligence

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) was discovered in the 1980s in E. coli and its function was elucidated in 2007 in S. thermophilus. Coupled with the CRISPR-associated protein nuclease (Cas), CRISPR/Cas forms a defense system enabling the organisms to respond to and eliminate invading exogenous organisms and foreign nucleic acids. The discovery and development of CRISPR/ CRISPR-associated protein-9 nuclease (Cas9) system offered superior precision and simplicity in genome editing, which can greatly bene t and has enormous potential in both biological and medical science research. Artificial intelligence (AI) was conceptualized in the 1950s and the recent resurgence of machine learning research assisted a rapid advancement in AI capability and functionality. Combining these two technologies, equipped with the machine learning and pattern recognition capability, AI has the potential to lift the biological and medical science research to a new level by (I) improving CRISPR ef cacy and precision with AI-assisted analysis and design of targets; (II) performing more ef cient analysis of molecular pathways and deepening understanding of their interactions through pattern recognition, and (III) incorporating CRISPR and AI to better understand multifactorial disorders, identify critical mutations, and design therapeutic targets.