In an unanticipated discovery, DeepMind - an AI company - has solved an intractable biology problem - that of determining a protein's structure from its genetic sequence

Posted: Dec 2, 2020 21:46

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DeepMind's program AlphaFold has solved a biology challenge which scientists did not expect to happen in their lifetimes. AlphaFold determines a protein's 3D structure purely from its genetic sequence. This is expected to lead to great advances in life sciences and medicine.

“It’s a game changer,” says Andrei Lupas, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany.

DeepMind is already working with scientific groups tackling malaria, sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease.

DeepMind became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc in 2015.

Nature : ‘It will change everything’: DeepMind’s AI makes gigantic leap in solving protein structures

Deepmind's site (blog) : AlphaFold: Using AI for scientific discovery

The Guardian : DeepMind AI cracks 50-year-old problem of protein folding. Program solves scientific problem in ‘stunning advance’ for understanding machinery of life

Wikipedia : DeepMind

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