Regina Barzilay, a professor in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a 2017 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, is working on using artificial intelligence to fight cancer, improve access to medicines and address social problems. Barzilay, who was herself diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, is developing algorithms using AI to detect small cancerous areas that mammograms sometimes miss with potentially deadly results. “Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, we can personalize screening around a woman’s risk of developing cancer,” she told MIT News. Barzilay also works on MIT’s Machine Learning for Pharmaceutical Discovery and Synthesis Consortium, which aims to maximize efficiency in creating new pharmaceuticals and works in the university’s natural language processing group, solving social problems through innovative information processing. Barzilay is a lead organizer of the AI Powered Drug Discovery and Manufacturing conference at MIT, to be held this February, where she will join other biotech leaders using AI in drug discovery and manufacturing.
