Machine learning and microbes: How big data is redefining biotechnology - TechRepublic

Berkeley-based Lygos is engineering and designing microbes that convert low-cost sugar into high-value, specialty chemicals. In other words, the latest advances in software, big data, machine learning, biotech, and chemistry may be combining to quite possibly start a new industrial revolution. Lygos develops microbes to convert sugar into high-value specialty chemicals, focusing its flagship product on malonic acid (derived from petroleum), which is used in a diverse set of industries, including flavor and fragrance, electronic manufacturing, and coatings. And, though they will borrow tech from the titans of Silicon Valley (e.g., TensorFlow from Google), and cloud vendors like AWS will lower the bar for developers dipping their toes into machine learning, the biggest impact of big data will not go toward ad-clicking strategies.