Deep learning in omics data analysis and precision medicine

Abstract

The rise of omics techniques has resulted in an explosion of molecular data in modern biomedical research. Together with information from medical images and clinical data, the field of omics has driven the implementation of personalized medicine. Biomedical and omics datasets are complex and heterogeneous, and extracting meaningful knowledge from this vast amount of information is by far the most important challenge for bioinformatics and machine learning researchers. In this context, there is an increasing interest in the potential of deep learning (DL) methods to create predictive models and to identify complex patterns from these large datasets. This chapter provides an overview of the main applications of DL methods in biomedical research, with focus on omics data analysis and precision medicine applications. DL algorithms and the most popular architectures are introduced first. This is followed by a review of some of the main applications and problems approached by DL in omics data and medical image analysis. Finally, implementations for improving the diagnosis, treatment, and classification of complex diseases are discussed.