- Artificial Intelligence is able to determine the shape & structure of proteins from one million species.
- AlphaFold by Deepminf made it possible
- The paper was published in the journal ‘Nature’ by Ewen Callaway.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has determined the shape and structure of approximately 200 million proteins from one million species according to a paper published in the journal ‘Nature’ by Ewen Callaway.
Identifying the 3D shape of almost any protein known to science will now be as simple as performing a Google search. DeepMind’s AlphaFold, the revolutionary AI network, made this possible, and the data is freely available on a website, opening up a whole new world of digital biology.
A protein’s function in cells is determined by its 3D shape, or structure. According to the report, most drugs are designed using structural information, and the creation of accurate maps of proteins’ amino-acid arrangement is frequently the first step in making discoveries about how proteins work.
Given how quickly science is advancing, it may not be long before the contours of our thoughts are mapped as well. If thoughts could be mapped, a day might come when AI could deconstruct the workings of neurons firing in the brain and reveal secrets about what causes us to think the way we do, giving us a better understanding of how our mind works.
Then we will be a step away from understanding whether ‘I think, therefore I am or ‘I think, therefore I think I am’. It might open up a Pandora’s box of existential questions, for sure.