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AI/TLDR

Google DeepMind · 2026-11-11 · major

AlphaGenome 2 — DeepMind's cell-type-aware DNA effect model

In short

AlphaGenome 2 is a Google DeepMind model that predicts how DNA variants change gene activity in a chosen human cell type. It trained on 100M+ single-cell profiles across 68 tissues and is free for non-commercial research.

Google DeepMind · 2026-11-11 · 3 sources checked

Isometric grid of glowing pink cubes on a dark background, illustrating AlphaGenome 2

A DNA model that predicts variant effects for one chosen cell type at a time, and adapts to new single-cell data.

Quick facts

MakerGoogle DeepMind
Input~1M-letter DNA sequence + a target cell type or state
Training data100M+ single-cell profiles, 68 tissues, human and mouse
New readoutDNA methylation
AvailabilityAlphaGenome API, non-commercial research
Commercial usePrivate preview

What is it?

AlphaGenome 2 is the successor to DeepMind's AlphaGenome, released a year earlier. It reads a DNA sequence of about one million letters and predicts how that sequence, and any variant in it, changes gene expression, histone marks, chromatin accessibility and, new in this version, DNA methylation.

How does it work?

The first model predicted many tissues in parallel. The new one is conditional: it takes the target tissue, cell type or state as an input and uses it at every stage. Conditions come from a reference catalog, or from a user's own single-cell experiment through a cell encoder. It can also impute unmeasured readouts from one measured signal.

Why does it matter?

DeepMind says the model finds nearly twice as many variants that change gene expression as the previous best model. On the TenK10K immune-cell data it identified 30% of causal variants versus 16%, and 43% of directional gene effects versus 23%. That helps researchers link disease variants to the cell types where they act.

Who is it for?

Genomics and single-cell researchers

Frequently asked questions

Can AlphaGenome 2 be used commercially?
AlphaGenome 2 is available through the AlphaGenome API for non-commercial research. Google DeepMind offers a private preview for commercial research. The post does not state a separate software license, and the models are intended for research use only, not clinical or diagnostic use.
How is AlphaGenome 2 different from the first AlphaGenome?
AlphaGenome 2 is a conditional model that predicts one tissue, cell type or state at a time, where the first AlphaGenome predicted many tissues in parallel. It adds DNA methylation as a readout and a cell encoder that accepts a user's single-cell data, so it can adapt without retraining.
How well does AlphaGenome 2 find causal variants?
On the TenK10K dataset of 28 immune cell types, AlphaGenome 2 identified 30% of causal variants against 16% for AlphaGenome fine-tuned on single-cell data. It got directional gene effects right 43% of the time against 23%, according to Google DeepMind's announcement.
Is AlphaGenome 2 approved for diagnosis?
No. Google DeepMind states that AlphaGenome 2 outputs are intended for research use only and have not been validated or approved for clinical or diagnostic purposes.

Try it

Request access through the AlphaGenome API docs at alphagenomedocs.com

Sources · 3 outlets

Tags

  • alphagenome
  • google-deepmind
  • genomics
  • computational-biology
  • single-cell
  • precision-medicine

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