The world is everchanging, now more than ever. With every generation, a new discovery or development fundamentally changes how the world works, and we never look back. In the 21st century, the rapidly improving technological climate has constantly redefined how people conduct their day-to-day lives, from the internet to iPhones to the most recent development: AI. As new AI bots like Chat-GPT and DeepSeek come into their own and are further improved upon, countless industries are affected and changed, including biomedicine.

At the University of Washington, Professor Su-In Lee is working to fundamentally change AI’s role in the world of biomedicine, in ways that others have never even thought of. The Lee Lab at UWash is unique, in that it bridges the gap between two very distinct and different sciences in a way that serves to improve each of them. To do this, the Lee Lab focuses on three main goals as detailed on their website. The first is based on AI and machine learning (ML) development, specifically developing AI principles and techniques. Their second goal revolves around biology, specifically, finding the root causes and best treatment routes for challenging diseases like cancer. The third and final goal that the Lee Lab acts to fulfill is clinical trials and healthcare. To be more specific, the third goal concerns itself with auditing and developing clinical AI models, further connecting the fields of computer science and biomedicine.

While their goals are quite broad, the Lee Lab has many more specific research focuses that still stay true to their original intentions. As stated on the lab’s website, it and its members are working on a variety of research topics, ranging from the biology of aging to AI transparency and model auditing.

Some people are presented with change, and shy away from it, hoping to stay in the circle of comfort and familiarity. Others face the challenge, and become the innovators of this world, by embracing novelty head-on. The members and researchers at the Lee Lab at the University of Washington are the perfect example of this, and through their efforts, we may see the next generation-defining change, that may forever affect the way we view the field of biomedicine.

By: Arjun Desai