IBM Watson Health and Phoenix-based Barrow Neurological Institute have identified eight genes linked with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Barrow Neurological Institute worked with Watson for Drug Discovery, a cloud-based tool that aims to identify new drug targets through machine learning, natural language processing and other cognitive functions. Watson for Drug Discovery used published data and research about ALS to rank almost 1,500 human genes based on association with ALS.
With further study into the top 10 genes in Watson's ranking, Barrow Neurological Institute researchers determined that eight of the genes were linked with the disease. Moving forward, the researchers hope these insights will help the development of new drug targets and therapies.