AI system decodes building blocks of life

Artificial intelligence (AI) company Deepmind has released a database of the structures of more than 350,000 proteins, including nearly every known protein made by the human body. An AI is a computer system that combines human-like problem-solving abilities with the power and speed of a machine.

Proteins are often called the building blocks of life. They are complex chemicals made by all living things, which help them build and run their bodies. Your body makes around 20,000 different types of protein. These long, chain-like molecules are scrunched tightly into balls. The way each protein functions depends on its 3D shape – the exact way it is “folded up”.

It can take several years of painstaking work to figure out the 3D shape of any given protein. Since the late 1950s, scientists have been slowly decoding these structures and have discovered the shapes of about 170,000 proteins. Deepmind’s AI program, called Alphafold, however, can reveal the shapes of proteins within minutes. The system learns how proteins fold by sifting through data on known structures to spot patterns. Analysis suggests it can correctly predict the shape about 95% of the time.

Understanding the shape of a protein gives clues as to what it does. Deepmind is putting this information online and it will be available for free. This “treasure trove” will help researchers understand how proteins work in the body; develop new treatments for diseases; improve human digestion; or design chemicals to break down plastic waste.

A model of a complex tangled protein.