AI has recognized the structure of almost all proteins

Not everyone knows this, but back in 2018, the AlphaFold artificial intelligence was able to study the sequence of amino acids that make up the protein structure, and thanks to this, it completely recognized it. At first glance, this is an ordinary event. However, it should be understood that the structure of a protein determines its function. Therefore, if we imagine that a database of more than 200 million identified proteins can be deciphered, then science is waiting for a grand breakthrough in the field of medicine and biology. Prior to this, artificial intelligence was able to recognize only a small part of the total number of proteins, and this was not enough. But now everything has changed.

At the same time, not everyone fully understands the importance of this event. The fact is that proteins are an important part of the body and perform many functions in it. All of them are closely related to the specific form of the protein that it takes at a certain moment. The whole principle of folding a protein into the most efficient form is contained in the original one-dimensional structure of an amino acid. Deciphering it is quite difficult, since the number of different combinations is almost infinite. As a result, biologists simply begin to experiment, and this always leads to additional monetary and time costs.

However, more recently, the development team was able to find a solution to the problem and completed one of the most important tasks at the moment. As a result, back in 2020, an open protein database was made public. It contains almost all human proteins, as well as some others.

But that was not all. After some time, absolutely all the proteins that are in any organism on the planet appeared in the database. The result is more than 200 million structures.

Experts appreciated this breakthrough. Some have stated bluntly that a new era has now dawned in the field of digital biology. New opportunities have made it possible to make a real breakthrough in the study of proteins. Now scientists have access to more than just 3D models of protein structures. With their help, scientists will be able to understand a variety of issues and find the right solutions. After all, they will have access to the functions of thousands of molecules in the human genome, about the purpose, and, in some cases, the existence of which, many simply did not suspect.

All this is also interesting because the study of proteins will allow us to better understand the nature of the appearance of disease-causing genes, as well as methods for solving this problem. In addition, the knowledge gained will help to create important medicines that can heal people much faster.

AlphaFold was able to unravel all protein structures and now they are in the public domain. This is very important information and now thousands of researchers and scientists from all over the world are working with it.

This breakthrough indicates that artificial intelligence is now capable of solving problems beyond the power of the human mind. Moreover, we are talking about a wide variety of areas of activity. So recently, the DeppMind neural network coped not with a scientific problem, but with a socio-economic one. Artificial intelligence has been able to develop the most efficient mechanism for distributing wealth among people. When calculating, he took into account all the interests of society and its individual members.