
AlphaFold: The 50-year grand challenge cracked by AI
For half a century, scientists struggled to predict how proteins fold. A puzzle at the heart of understanding life and curing disease. Then, five years ago, the #alphafold team cracked the code.
Since then, more than 3 million researchers across 190+ countries have used AlphaFold’s freely available database of 200 million+ protein structures, accelerating discoveries in everything from drug design to disease-resistant crops, bee conservation, and plastic-eating enzymes.
Learn more: https://deepmind.google/blog/alphafold-five-years-of-impact
____
Further reading:
Here are just a few examples of how researchers worldwide are using AlphaFold (in order of appearance):
Chile, Germany: Engineering the catalytic activity of an Antarctic PET-degrading enzyme by loop exchange: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pro.4757
United Kingdom: AlphaFold-Multimer predicts cross-kingdom interactions at the plant-pathogen interface: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41721-9
United States: Increasing thermostability of the key photorespiratory enzyme glycerate 3-kinase by structure-based recombination: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.14508
United States: The structure of apolipoprotein B100 from human low-density lipoprotein: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08467-w
Norway, Portugal, USA, UK: Cryo-EM structure of native honey bee vitellogenin: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58575-y
Spain: Identification of novel compounds against Trypanosoma cruzi using AlphaFold structures: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2001037025001655
France: Structural basis for hepatitis E virus neutralization by potent human antibodies: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adu8811
___
Subscribe to our channel https://www.youtube.com/@googledeepmind
Find us on X https://twitter.com/GoogleDeepMind
Follow us on Instagram https://instagram.com/googledeepmind
Add us on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepmind/
Since then, more than 3 million researchers across 190+ countries have used AlphaFold’s freely available database of 200 million+ protein structures, accelerating discoveries in everything from drug design to disease-resistant crops, bee conservation, and plastic-eating enzymes.
Learn more: https://deepmind.google/blog/alphafold-five-years-of-impact
____
Further reading:
Here are just a few examples of how researchers worldwide are using AlphaFold (in order of appearance):
Chile, Germany: Engineering the catalytic activity of an Antarctic PET-degrading enzyme by loop exchange: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pro.4757
United Kingdom: AlphaFold-Multimer predicts cross-kingdom interactions at the plant-pathogen interface: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41721-9
United States: Increasing thermostability of the key photorespiratory enzyme glycerate 3-kinase by structure-based recombination: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.14508
United States: The structure of apolipoprotein B100 from human low-density lipoprotein: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08467-w
Norway, Portugal, USA, UK: Cryo-EM structure of native honey bee vitellogenin: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58575-y
Spain: Identification of novel compounds against Trypanosoma cruzi using AlphaFold structures: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2001037025001655
France: Structural basis for hepatitis E virus neutralization by potent human antibodies: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adu8811
___
Subscribe to our channel https://www.youtube.com/@googledeepmind
Find us on X https://twitter.com/GoogleDeepMind
Follow us on Instagram https://instagram.com/googledeepmind
Add us on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepmind/
Google DeepMind
Artificial intelligence could be one of humanity's most useful inventions. DeepMind aims to build advanced AI to expand our knowledge and find new answers. By solving this one thing, we believe we could help people solve thousands of problems.
We’re a te...