OpenAI says GPT-5 Pro helped immunologist analyze a T-cell experiment

OpenAI published a case study about immunologist Derya Unutmaz using GPT-5 Pro to analyze experimental results from his lab.

The work involved a 2022 experiment on how glucose and a glucose-like molecule called deoxyglucose affected T-cell development. The lab expected low glucose and deoxyglucose exposure to produce similar results, but cells exposed to deoxyglucose produced more Th17 inflammatory-response cells.

OpenAI says Unutmaz later uploaded the results to GPT-5 Pro. The model suggested that deoxyglucose may have interfered with production of IL-2, a protein involved in limiting Th17 cell development.

OpenAI also says Unutmaz asked GPT-5 Pro to simulate a separate unpublished experiment involving CD8+ T cells and lymphoma cells, and that the model predicted the observed increase in the cells’ ability to kill lymphoma cells.

Unutmaz said the model helped identify a possible explanation that his lab had not previously found. The case study presents GPT-5 Pro as a tool for hypothesis generation and experimental analysis, with human researchers still responsible for evaluating the results.

Source: OpenAI — https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-immunology-mystery/