Google DeepMindan English artificial intelligence (AI) research and development company acquired by the parent company Alphabet, presented this Wednesday, May 8, the third version of AlphaFold. This new model is capable of predict the structure and interactions of all the molecules of life “with unprecedented precision”, promises to revolutionize the understanding of biological processes and wants to pave the way for discover new drugs.
According to an article published in the magazine NatureAlphaFold 3 is based on the foundations of AlphaFold 2 and could dunlock more transformative science, from the development of biorenewable materials and more resilient crops to the acceleration of drug design and genomic research. But what exactly can this artificial intelligence do?
AlphaFold 3 can model the molecules of life
AlphaFold 3 generates a joint 3D structure and models biomolecules large molecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as small molecules, also known as ligands – a category that encompasses many drugs. Additionally, it can create chemical modifications of these molecules that control the healthy functioning of cells and, when altered, can cause disease.
On the other hand, AlphaFold 3’s capabilities come from its next-generation architecture and training that covers all the molecules of life. And also, assemble your predictions using a broadcast networksimilar to those found in AI image generators.
Develop drugs
AlphaFold 3 creates capabilities for drug design with molecule predictions Commonly used in medicines, as ligands and antibodies, they bind to proteins to change the way they interact in health and disease.
Additionally, AlphaFold 3 achieves unprecedented accuracy in predicting drug-like interactions, as It is 50% more accurate than the best traditional methodsmaking this model the first artificial intelligence system to outperform physics-based tools for predicting biomolecular structures.
Google states on his official blog that “using AlphaFold 3 in combination with a complementary set of internal AI models, Isomorphic Labs is working on drug design for internal projects and with pharmaceutical partners. Isomorphic Labs is using AlphaFold 3 to accelerate and improve drug design successhelping to understand how to address new disease targets and developing novel ways to pursue existing ones that were previously out of reach.”
When can AlphaFold 3 be used
According to the Mountain View company, scientists can now access most of its capabilities, for freethrough the AlphaFold Server tool.
However, to harness the potential of AlphaFold 3 for drug design, Isomorphic Labs is already collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to apply it to real-world drug design challenges and ultimately develop new life-changing treatments. the patients.
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