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Main Authors: Orouji, Seyedmehdi, Liu, Martin C., Korem, Tal, Peters, Megan A. K.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19221
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author Orouji, Seyedmehdi
Liu, Martin C.
Korem, Tal
Peters, Megan A. K.
author_facet Orouji, Seyedmehdi
Liu, Martin C.
Korem, Tal
Peters, Megan A. K.
contents Machine learning techniques are steadily becoming more important in modern biology, and are used to build predictive models, discover patterns, and investigate biological problems. However, models trained on one dataset are often not generalizable to other datasets from different cohorts or laboratories, due to differences in the statistical properties of these datasets. These could stem from technical differences, such as the measurement technique used, or from relevant biological differences between the populations studied. Domain adaptation, a type of transfer learning, can alleviate this problem by aligning the statistical distributions of features and samples among different datasets so that similar models can be applied across them. However, a majority of state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods are designed to work with large-scale data, mostly text and images, while biological datasets often suffer from small sample sizes, and possess complexities such as heterogeneity of the feature space. This Review aims to synthetically discuss domain adaptation methods in the context of small-scale and highly heterogeneous biological data. We describe the benefits and challenges of domain adaptation in biological research and critically discuss some of its objectives, strengths, and weaknesses through key representative methodologies. We argue for the incorporation of domain adaptation techniques to the computational biologist's toolkit, with further development of customized approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_19221
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Domain adaptation in small-scale and heterogeneous biological datasets
Orouji, Seyedmehdi
Liu, Martin C.
Korem, Tal
Peters, Megan A. K.
Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
Machine learning techniques are steadily becoming more important in modern biology, and are used to build predictive models, discover patterns, and investigate biological problems. However, models trained on one dataset are often not generalizable to other datasets from different cohorts or laboratories, due to differences in the statistical properties of these datasets. These could stem from technical differences, such as the measurement technique used, or from relevant biological differences between the populations studied. Domain adaptation, a type of transfer learning, can alleviate this problem by aligning the statistical distributions of features and samples among different datasets so that similar models can be applied across them. However, a majority of state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods are designed to work with large-scale data, mostly text and images, while biological datasets often suffer from small sample sizes, and possess complexities such as heterogeneity of the feature space. This Review aims to synthetically discuss domain adaptation methods in the context of small-scale and highly heterogeneous biological data. We describe the benefits and challenges of domain adaptation in biological research and critically discuss some of its objectives, strengths, and weaknesses through key representative methodologies. We argue for the incorporation of domain adaptation techniques to the computational biologist's toolkit, with further development of customized approaches.
title Domain adaptation in small-scale and heterogeneous biological datasets
topic Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19221