Generative artificial intelligence GPT-4 accelerates knowledge mining and machine learning for synthetic biology

Knowledge mining from synthetic biology journal articles for machine learning (ML) applications is a labor-intensive process. The development of natural language processing (NLP) tools, such as GPT-4, can accelerate the extraction of published information related to microbial performance under complex strain engineering and bioreactor conditions. As a proof of concept, we used GPT-4 to extract knowledge from 176 publications on two oleaginous yeasts (Yarrowia lipolytica and Rhodosporidium toruloides). After integration with a molecule inventory database, the outcome is a total of 2037 data instances and 28 features, which serve as machine learning inputs. The structured datasets enabled ML approaches (e.g., a random forest model) to predict Yarrowia fermentation titers with high accuracy (R2 of 0.86 for unseen test data). Via transfer learning, the trained model could also assess the production capability of the non-conventional yeast, R. toruloides, for which there are fewer published reports. This work demonstrated the potential of generative artificial intelligence to speed up information extraction from research articles, thereby improving design-build-test-learn (DBTL) cycles for commercial biomanufacturing development.