Can LLMs automate biomedical research?
FROM INTENTION TO IMPLEMENTATION: AUTOMATING BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH VIA LLMS
This paper introduces BioResearcher, an AI system designed to automate biomedical research using large language models (LLMs). It takes a research objective as input and automatically generates an experimental protocol, including data collection, analysis methods, and code. BioResearcher uses a multi-agent approach, where different LLMs specialize in tasks like searching literature, processing information, designing experiments, and generating code. Key to its design is a hierarchical approach that breaks down complex research processes into smaller, manageable steps, addressing challenges in multidisciplinary knowledge integration and logical reasoning. A novel review agent provides quality control and addresses the lack of ground truth for evaluation. BioResearcher successfully automated a significant portion of real-world research tasks, outperforming existing single-agent and simpler multi-agent LLM systems.