Monitoring the environment with artificial intelligence - Communiqués de presse - UNIGE

Microorganisms perform key functions in ecosystems and their diversity reflects the health of their environment. However, they are still largely under-exploited in current biomonitoring programs because they are difficult to identify. Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have recently developed an approach combining two cutting edge technologies to fill this gap. They use genomic tools to sequence the DNA of microorganisms in samples, and then exploit this considerable amount of data with artificial intelligence. They build predictive models capable of establishing a diagnosis of the health of ecosystems on a large scale and identify species that perform important functions.