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Main Authors: Abdel-Rehim, Abbi, Zenil, Hector, Orhobor, Oghenejokpeme, Fisher, Marie, Collins, Ross J., Bourne, Elizabeth, Fearnley, Gareth W., Tate, Emma, Smith, Holly X., Soldatova, Larisa N., King, Ross D.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12258
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author Abdel-Rehim, Abbi
Zenil, Hector
Orhobor, Oghenejokpeme
Fisher, Marie
Collins, Ross J.
Bourne, Elizabeth
Fearnley, Gareth W.
Tate, Emma
Smith, Holly X.
Soldatova, Larisa N.
King, Ross D.
author_facet Abdel-Rehim, Abbi
Zenil, Hector
Orhobor, Oghenejokpeme
Fisher, Marie
Collins, Ross J.
Bourne, Elizabeth
Fearnley, Gareth W.
Tate, Emma
Smith, Holly X.
Soldatova, Larisa N.
King, Ross D.
contents Large language models LLMs have transformed AI and achieved breakthrough performance on a wide range of tasks In science the most interesting application of LLMs is for hypothesis formation A feature of LLMs which results from their probabilistic structure is that the output text is not necessarily a valid inference from the training text These are termed hallucinations and are harmful in many applications In science some hallucinations may be useful novel hypotheses whose validity may be tested by laboratory experiments Here we experimentally test the application of LLMs as a source of scientific hypotheses using the domain of breast cancer treatment We applied the LLM GPT4 to hypothesize novel synergistic pairs of FDA-approved noncancer drugs that target the MCF7 breast cancer cell line relative to the nontumorigenic breast cell line MCF10A In the first round of laboratory experiments GPT4 succeeded in discovering three drug combinations out of twelve tested with synergy scores above the positive controls GPT4 then generated new combinations based on its initial results this generated three more combinations with positive synergy scores out of four tested We conclude that LLMs are a valuable source of scientific hypotheses.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_12258
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scientific Hypothesis Generation by a Large Language Model: Laboratory Validation in Breast Cancer Treatment
Abdel-Rehim, Abbi
Zenil, Hector
Orhobor, Oghenejokpeme
Fisher, Marie
Collins, Ross J.
Bourne, Elizabeth
Fearnley, Gareth W.
Tate, Emma
Smith, Holly X.
Soldatova, Larisa N.
King, Ross D.
Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
Cell Behavior
Large language models LLMs have transformed AI and achieved breakthrough performance on a wide range of tasks In science the most interesting application of LLMs is for hypothesis formation A feature of LLMs which results from their probabilistic structure is that the output text is not necessarily a valid inference from the training text These are termed hallucinations and are harmful in many applications In science some hallucinations may be useful novel hypotheses whose validity may be tested by laboratory experiments Here we experimentally test the application of LLMs as a source of scientific hypotheses using the domain of breast cancer treatment We applied the LLM GPT4 to hypothesize novel synergistic pairs of FDA-approved noncancer drugs that target the MCF7 breast cancer cell line relative to the nontumorigenic breast cell line MCF10A In the first round of laboratory experiments GPT4 succeeded in discovering three drug combinations out of twelve tested with synergy scores above the positive controls GPT4 then generated new combinations based on its initial results this generated three more combinations with positive synergy scores out of four tested We conclude that LLMs are a valuable source of scientific hypotheses.
title Scientific Hypothesis Generation by a Large Language Model: Laboratory Validation in Breast Cancer Treatment
topic Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
Cell Behavior
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12258