Predictions of Most Human Protein Structures Made Freely Available

The AlphaFold program from AI firm DeepMind has amassed a huge database of protein structures from humans and model organisms.

Written byLisa Winter

| 3 min read

Q8W3K0, listed in the DeepMind database as a potential plant disease resistance protein from Arabidopsis thaliana

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ABOVE: Q8W3K0, listed in the DeepMind database as a potential plant disease resistance protein from Arabidopsis thaliana
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Update (July 29, 2022): Nature reports that AlphaFold has now predicted the structure of more than 200 million proteins spanning 1 million species—nearly every known protein. These structures will soon be freely available online through DeepMind’s database.

A solid understanding of a protein’s structure can lend crucial insight into the mechanism of certain biological processes or provide a starting point for developing a new drug. AlphaFold, a program from the UK-based artificial intelligence firm DeepMind, has made significant strides in reducing the time needed to predict a protein’s structure from months to minutes with unparalleled accuracy. Now, a paper published July 22 in Nature reports that a collaboration between AlphaFold and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has built a publicly-available database containing more than 350,000 protein structures.

“This understanding means we ...

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Meet the Author

Lisa Winter
Lisa joined The Scientist in 2017. As social media editor, some of her duties include creating content, managing interactions, and developing strategies for the brand’s social media presence. She also contributes to the News & Opinion section of the website. Lisa holds a degree in Biological Sciences with a concentration in genetics, cell, and developmental biology from Arizona State University and has worked in science communication since 2012.
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