Major scientific breakthrough: Google's AI firm releases 3D view of the Proteus universe

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Major scientific breakthrough: Google's AI firm releases 3D view of the Proteus universe

Using an artificial intelligence (AI) network, an Alphabet-owned artificial intelligence research company has published the structures of nearly all proteins, the building blocks of life, of more than 200 million people, from bacteria to humans. The publication of All Proteins is touted to be revolutionary for AI as it is seen as a potential treasure trove for drug development and evolutionary studies.

AI-powered predictions of the three-dimensional structures of nearly all cataloged proteins known to science have been made by DeepMind, a tool developed by Google's London-based AI company, and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Cambridge. Has an intergovernmental organization,Britain.Proteins are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units called amino acids, which are linked to each other in long chains.

For example, when the COVID vaccine was developed, biologists analyzed the protein of Sars-Cov-2 to design antibodies and neutralize the protein's ability to infect more cells. This three-dimensional information is mostly collected using a cryo-electron microscope.

"We are now releasing the structures for the entire protein universe," DeepMind founder and CEO Demis Hasabis said during a press conference in London.

The proteins decoded by AlphaFold comprise a range of organisms, from bacteria to plants to vertebrates, including mice, humans, and zebrafish. As reported by Science.org, DeepMind research scientist Catherine Tunyasuvunakul said that it took their AI tool about 10 to 20 seconds to predict each protein.

The AI ​​company had to work closely with EMBL-EBI to figure out how to represent a large number of structures in the database. DeepMind says more than 500,000 researchers have already used the database since its launch last year.