Opportunities and Obstacles for Deep Learning in Biology and Medicine

Deep learning describes a class of machine learning algorithms that are capable of combining raw inputs into layers of intermediate features. These algorithms have recently shown impressive results across a variety of domains. Biology and medicine are data-rich disciplines, but the data are complex and often ill-understood.

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Deep learning techniques may be particularly well suited to solve problems of these fields. We examine applications of deep learning to a variety of biomedical problems, patient classification, fundamental biological processes, and treatment of patients and discuss whether deep learning will be able to transform these tasks or if the biomedical sphere poses unique challenges.