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By Helen Briggs
BBC Scientific Correspondent
Publishedduration3 minutes agoShareSharenocloseShare pagelinkCopy linkSharing information
image copyrightCasp / DeepMind / TagliabracciTomchick, UTSouthWesternimage caption A DeepMind model of a legionnaire’s (Casp-14) bacterium protein
One of biology’s biggest mysteries has been solved using artificial intelligence, experts announced.
Predicting how a protein folds into a unique three-dimensional shape has puzzled scientists for half a century.
London-based artificial intelligence laboratory DeepMind has largely solved the problem, organizers of a scientific challenge say.
The program determined the shape of the proteins to a level of accuracy comparable to expensive and time-consuming laboratory methods, they say.
The discovery is expected to accelerate research into a number of diseases, including Covid-19.
Dr Andriy Kryshtafovych, of the University of California (UC), Davis in the United States, one of the panel of scientific judges, described the result as “truly remarkable”.
“Being able to study the shape of proteins quickly and accurately has the potential to revolutionize the life sciences,” he said.
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