Alphafold may be the most exciting scientific innovation in this century. From Google DeepMind, and I mentioned for the first time In 2020, artificial intelligence is used to know the structure of 3D protein. This technology has already been used to solve the basic questions in biology, awarded the Nobel Prize (in chemistry – to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper) and the discovery of drugs revolution. Like most artificial intelligence, it only improves – and just start.
The protein structure gives us evidence about its function, and helps us design new drugs. Alfafold, which was Coach On a huge database of the experimental solutions called the protein data bank, it predicts the protein structure based on the amino acid sequence.
In the past, the first step will be to produce a wide amount of protein – using a liter of bacteria, or a virus. You Pray In order for the protein to gather in a crystal (difficult), then the high -energy X -rays are launched in it. This is called X -ray crystals, and it may take years. Now, Alphafold can do this in minutes (and hell much more, too).
When alphafold is competing to solve protein structure a race In 2020, it was very good for some to accuse Alphafold of cheating. In its first appearance, Alphafold became a state of art. Now, there are approximately 250,000,000 protein structures in the alphafold database, which have been used by approximately 2 million people from 190 countries-many people more than they can do X-ray crystals!
The doctorate did in cancer biology. I liked the solution of the protein structure that I worked on. Perhaps I could use it to make a new drug. Now, I can go to Alphafold servant And the production of a structure in five minutes could have been consumed as a doctorate.
Dr. Pauline Lascox, the molecular and structural biologist at the University The latest studyWhich has discovered a new method by cells to repair the DNA, and that more than 90 % of the studies they review are martyred.
So what does the discovery of drugs with Alphafold look? In this A recent scientific studyAlphafold researchers used to predict the structure of serotonin receptors, which control the mood. during In silico Test (on computers) tested any of 1.6 billion molecules (!) You can connect the infrared structure. What they found is a series of molecules that are tightly associated with much more than the traditional -experimental approach, which can be new drugs for mood disorders.
Alphafold has only been present since 2020, but its effect was a meteorite. Below are the three best discoveries enabled by Alfafold so far:
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candy Decades of life problem: The structure of the nuclear pore complex, one of the largest structures in the cell. This complex is the guardian to enter the nucleus, which carries the DNA of the cell. It is involved in cancer, aging and nervousness – and now we know what it looks at the atomic level.
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Finding a new drug for liver cancer. In a laboratory (not in patients), the medicine, which Goals Cancer protein CDK20Preventing the growth of liver cancer.
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Help design a “molecular syringe”, which provides Therapeutic protein load In human cells.
There are companies based on Alphafold, too. If alphafold solve the lock, then alphaproteo Provides the key. AlPhaproteo uses alphafold structures to design molecules that can be associated and modified by other proteins. This was used to generate molecules that have not been made before-to target Covid-19, cancer and autoimmune.
Also from DeepMind, alphamissense It addresses the problem of error mutations – slight changes on genes, with an uncertain functional effect. Despite its spread, we only know if about 2 % of these changes are pathogenic. Alphamissense models are the structure of mutations using alphafold: If the protein structure changes, it is likely to be a cause of pathogens. This can prevent the diagnosis and treatment of rare genetic diseases.
We do not know yet whether the medications are designed using Alphafold will pass through clinical trials, and nothing has been tested in humans yet – only will determine the time.
In the future, Alphafold can enable new medications to be discovered by individuals, can find medicines for non -pillow goals, and can open the secrets of molecular life. (Only on the last day, alphafold Help The structure of the sperm bridge that is formed during fertilization.)
If the first generation of drug detection is the generation of nature, which gave us aspirin (from Willow Tree), and the second is the generation of biotechnology, which gave us OzemPIC, then we now moved to the third generation: the generation of artificial intelligence.