Because of the increasing size and inherent complexity of biological data, there has been an increase in the application of machine learning in biology to create useful and predictive models of the underlying biological processes. All machine learning techniques fit models to data; nevertheless, the specific methods are highly variable and can appear baffling at first glance. In this Review, we hope to give readers a moderate introduction to a few fundamental machine learning techniques, including the most recently created and frequently used deep neural network techniques. We illustrate how different algorithms may be adapted to specific types of biological data, as well as some best practises and points to consider when embarking on machine learning studies. There is also discussion of several upcoming directions in machine learning methodology.
