Daniela Witten: Using artificial intelligence to study genomes

Raw scientific data is something like gold ore -- tons of rock containing a few precious nuggets. Daniela Witten, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington in Seattle, is developing artificial intelligence programs to sort the slurry, helping researchers develop more personalized and effective treatments for cancer and other diseases. "In the last 10 years, the field of biology has totally transformed," says Witten, who at 27, made the Forbes list of 30 under 30 last year with time to spare. While a biologist a generation ago might have spent a career studying a single protein, leaps in technology now make it possible to measure thousands of proteins or map the DNA sequence of a cancer cell. "A single experiment can generate a gigabyte of data -- if not more," says Witten.