ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, SERGUNT
The shape of a protein has a direct bearing on its function and is a key component in drug discovery, and it can take years of experimentation to figure it out. On Monday, November 30, the Protein Structure Prediction Center at the University of California, Davis, announced that the DeepMind artificial intelligence lab and its AlphaFold program have accelerated the time to determine protein shape in a fraction of what it takes traditional methods to accomplish.
The AlphaFold program uses neural networks to perform deep learning, identifying patterns in sequences and structures of proteins found in a global database. As it learns over time, the program can identify the structure of a protein in minutes. Traditionally, researchers would use techniques such as X-ray crystallography or cryo-electron microscopy to visualize the protein. This is a time-consuming process that can take years to complete or even a person’s ...
