Google DeepMind unveils next generation of drug discovery AI model
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[May 09, 2024]
By Martin Coulter
LONDON (Reuters) - Google Deepmind has unveiled the third major version
of its "AlphaFold" artificial intelligence model, designed to help
scientists design drugs and target disease more effectively.
In 2020, the company made a significant advance in molecular biology by
using AI to successfully predict the behaviour of microscopic proteins.
With the latest incarnation of AlphaFold, researchers at DeepMind and
sister company Isomorphic Labs – both overseen by cofounder Demis
Hassabis – have mapped the behaviour for all of life's molecules,
including human DNA.
The interactions of proteins - from enzymes crucial to the human
metabolism, to the antibodies that fight infectious diseases - with
other molecules is key to drug discovery and development.
DeepMind said the findings, published in research journal Nature on
Wednesday, would reduce the time and money needed to develop potentially
life-changing treatments.
“With these new capabilities, we can design a molecule that will bind to
a specific place on a protein, and we can predict how strongly it will
bind,” Hassabis said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
“It's a critical step if you want to design drugs and compounds that
will help with disease.”
The company also announced the release of the “AlphaFold server”, a free
online tool that scientists can use to test their hypotheses before
running real-world tests.
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Google DeepMind logo is seen near computer motherboard in this
illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File
Photo
Since 2021, AlphaFold’s predictions
have been freely accessible to non-commercial researchers, as part
of a database containing more than 200 million protein structures,
and has been cited thousands of times in others’ work.
DeepMind said the new server required less computing knowledge,
allowing researchers to run tests with just a few clicks of a
button.
John Jumper, a senior research scientist at DeepMind, said: “It’s
going to be really important how much easier the AlphaFold server
makes it for biologists – who are experts in biology, not computer
science – to test larger, more complex cases."
Dr Nicole Wheeler, an expert in microbiology at the University of
Birmingham, said AlphaFold 3 could significantly speed up the drug
discovery pipeline, as "physically producing and testing biological
designs is a big bottleneck in biotechnology at the moment".
(Reporting by Martin Coulter; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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