Brendan Frey
Brendan Frey
Brendan John Frey FRSC is a Canadian computer scientist, entrepreneur, and engineer. He is Founder and CEO of Deep Genomics, Cofounder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Professor of Engineering and Medicine at the University of Toronto. Frey is a pioneer in the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods, their use in accurately determining the consequ
"After the human genome was sequenced, we had the text, but we didn’t know how to make sense of it, Now we have a ‘deep genomics’ engine – a machine-learning system where you feed in the genetics and it will tell you what’s going to happen in the cells."
"People with gene mutation A are more likely to get disease B"
"We put it all together into one big system, Our ability to interpret the genome is growing very rapidly now. I think in 10 years we’re going to understand most of what the genome does, which mutations cause which diseases and why. Even if we could just address 10 per cent of genetic disease more accurately, it would have a huge impact on people’s lives.."
"The kind of research we do is leading edge in information technology."
"For example, the traditional approach to organizing images is a step-by-step analysis that says, if theres colour then do this, and once youve completed that step, then see if theres a border around the image and then do this, and so on."
"Our approach is different: instead of a linear analysis, we look at all the possible variables all at once and put together hypotheses that simultaneously try to figure out what all the images are about."
"For the millions of people on the planet who use digital cameras, the work of Dr. Frey and his team has the potential to make it easier to organize and sort through countless pictures stored on a computers hard drive."
"Similar pictures - for instance, all pictures of beach vacations - would be grouped together automatically by a computer program."
"But the benefits of this technology go beyond digital photo albums, he says. "Medical researchers can use it to study hundreds of MRI images all at once and identify problems," he says, to give just one practical example."
"The same tools can also be used to analyze documents by grouping together similar sentences and summarizing their meaning."
"I believe that if you work really hard on researching and coming up with new ideas, then everything else will fall into place."
