LONDON, May 8 (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.
