Regina Barzilay

Regina Barzilay is the AI faculty lead of the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (Jameel Clinic), the epicentre of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also a School of Engineering Distinguished Professor for AI and health in the department of electrical engineering and computer science and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Regina’s research interest focuses on machine learning models for molecular modelling with applications to drug discovery and clinical AI. She also concentrates on natural language processing and oncology, developing algorithms that can learn from cancer patient data to improve models of disease progression, treatment and potential cures.

Regina’s work has received various awards, including the UNESCO/Netexplo award (2021), AACC Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship Award (2021), a Top 100 AI Leaders in Drug Discovery & Advanced Healthcare Award (2019), Xconomy Boston Digital Trailblazer Award (2019), the NSF Career Award (2005) and several best paper awards at NAACL and ACL. In 2017, Regina received a MacArthur "genius grant" Award, an ACL fellowship and an Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) fellowship. In 2020, she was awarded a $1 million prize by AAAI's Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity in recognition for her work applying AI to drug discovery and breast cancer detection, using an AI model, Mirai.

Also in 2020, alongside co-principal investigator Jim Collins and other colleagues at MIT Jameel Clinic, Regina published research identifying a powerful new antibiotic compound, Halicin, using a machine-learning algorithm. The drug killed many of the world’s most problematic disease-causing bacteria in laboratory tests, including some strains that are resistant to all known antibiotics. It also cleared infections in two different mouse models. Following on from the antibiotic-AI project, Regina and team received seven-year funding from the Audacious Project, a collaborative funding initiative with a goal of supporting solutions to global challenge.

In 2023, Regina and fellow researchers at MIT Jameel Clinic developed an AI model that can detect future lung cancer risk up to six years' in advance. Called Sybil, the name was inspired by feminine figures in ancient Greek mythology who read oracles of the past, present and future. The technology provides a personalised approach to assessing each patient’s risk of lung cancer based on CT scans, without the need for a radiologist.

In the same year, Regina was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions for engineers, for her development of machine learning models that understand structures in text, molecules and medical images. Later in the year, with her team at MIT, she developed DiffDock, a molecular docking model that has the potential to discover new drugs faster than traditional methods and reduce the risk of adverse side effects.

News

Regina Barzilay joins the Futurist Summit to discuss new frontiers of medicine and the MIT Jameel Clinic

MIT Jameel Clinic faculty co-lead Regina Barzilay features on the PBS Nova documentary 'AI revolution'

MIT Jameel Clinic's Sybil featured in Newsweek top-10 best hospitals in the world

MIT Jameel Clinic fellow Shrooq Alsenan appointed assistant professor at Princess Nourah University

MIT Jameel Clinic hosts regional convening on AI and healthcare in Dubai in partnership with UAE Artificial Intelligence Office

Jameel Clinic at MIT and Wellcome launch AI Hospital Network

Regina Barzilay, James Collins, and Phil Sharp to lead the MIT Jameel Clinic

Media

How machines learned to discover drugs

A new computational technique could make it easier to engineer useful proteins

Jameel Clinic AI faculty lead Regina Barzilay named one of 10 very important people behind Boston’s AI revolution

Five MIT faculty members take on Cancer Grand Challenges

Meet 8 MIT women faculty who teach MITx courses and lead cutting-edge research

How AI is changing drug development

Budgeting for enterprise AI initiatives

The new frontiers of AI: Funding challenges and potential solutions

'NOVA: AI revolution' dives into the past, present, and future of one of the most consequential technological advancements of our time

School of engineering fourth quarter 2024 awards

What am I thankful for this year? Amazing scientific discoveries.

Breast Cancer Research Foundation: Regina Barzilay

Twelve with MIT ties elected to the National Academy of Medicine for 2023

The future is here

MIT scholars awarded seed grants to probe the social implications of generative AI

NVIDIA uses AI to solve climate change and protein folding

How scientists are using artificial intelligence

Opinion: Here are the jobs AI will impact most

You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say

Sizing up AI's promise and limitations in cancer detection

AI's impact on different jobs across the labor market

AI-discovered drugs will be for sale sooner than you think

Opinion: AI alone won’t solve the problem of antibiotic resistance

Mammography-based deep learning model may help detect precancerous changes in high-risk women

How artificial intelligence is being used to detect and treat cancer, but what are the potential risks for patients?

Healthcare providers say artificial intelligence could transform medicine

Jameel Clinic research develops 'FrameDiff', a computational tool that uses generative AI to craft new protein structures

Healthy approach to AI

Using AI, scientists find a drug that could combat drug-resistant infections

Why AI is set to become an important healthcare tool, not a threat

Could AI be the key to detecting lung cancer years in advance?

Inteligencia artificial promete detectar el cáncer de pulmón antes que las tomografías, según expertos

AI could revolutionise cancer detection, according to MIT, Mass General research

Allurion announces appointment of MIT Distinguished Professor for AI and Health Regina Barzilay to scientific advisory board

Speeding up drug discovery with diffusion generative models

Neural networks for drug discovery and design

MIT community members elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2023

The fight against antibiotic resistance is growing more urgent, but artificial intelligence can help

Barzilay elected to National Academy of Engineering

Sybil: An artificial intelligence tool that can predict risk of lung cancer

As more never-smokers develop lung cancer, researchers test an AI model to predict patient risk

MIT researchers develop an AI model that can detect future lung cancer risk

AI predicts lung cancer risk six years into the future using single CT scan: study

MIT & Mass General Hospital have developed an AI system that can detect lung cancer

Jameel Clinic and UAE Artificial Intelligence Office hosts conference on AI and healthcare

Dubai hosts a regional convening on Artificial Intelligence and healthcare in partnership with UAE Artificial Intelligence Office

MIT Jameel Clinic hosts meet on AI and healthcare, to roll out clinical tools

Jameel Clinic AI Hospital Network launched

Learning Stable Classifiers by Transferring Unstable Features

Quantum + AI = Future

Can artificial intelligence overcome the challenges of the health care system?

Tough questions, few answers: The FDA wrestles with its approach to AI in medicine

Seven from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2022

See how AI can predict future cancer risk

AI/ML/Human Immunology Collaborative Initiative: Spotlight on Regina Barzilay

Artificial intelligence tool developed to predict risk of lung cancer

‘It’s going to set the bar pretty high’: A path forward for trusted AI in breast cancer risk prediction

Scientists discover powerful antibiotic using AI

How an AI scientist turned her breast cancer diagnosis into a tool to save lives

Using A.I. to transform breast cancer care

Using AI to predict breast cancer and personalize care

Events

MIT-MGB AI Cures conference 2024

MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning Summer Programme

MIT x MGB AI cures conference

AI Cures • MENASA 2022

MIT Jameel Clinic: The power of AI to ensure equity in healthcare