Tracing 700 million years of cell evolution
03 September, 2026
Publishing in Nature Communications, a KAUST-led team has developed the AI tool Unify to help scientists compare similar cell types across distant species.This comparison can help researchers assess which findings from animal studies may be most relevant to human health.
- Cells from humans, mice, fish, flies, or worms can perform similar biological functions, even when the genes behind those functions have changed over millennia.
- Unify connected 125 cell types across more than 700 million years of evolution.
- By accounting for evolutionary changes in genes, scientists determine which animal discoveries apply to human health research.