AlphaFold3

May 9, 2024

Google Deepmind has unveiled the third major version of its "AlphaFold" artificial intelligence model, designed to help scientists design drugs and target disease more effectively.

About AlphaFold3:

  • It is a new AI model developed by Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs. 
  • It is a revolutionary model that can predict the structure and interactions of all life’s molecules with unprecedented accuracy and even it mapped the behaviour for all of life's molecules, including human DNA.
  • It can generate molecules joint 3D structure, revealing how they all fit together.
  • It models large biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as small molecules, also known as ligands — a category encompassing many drugs.
  • Furthermore, AlphaFold 3 can model chemical modifications to these molecules which control the healthy functioning of cells, that when disrupted can lead to disease.
  • It assembles its predictions using a diffusion network, akin to those found in AI image generators. 
  • Significance:
    • It allows scientists to see cellular systems in all their complexity, across structures, interactions and modifications.
    • This new window on the molecules of life reveals how they’re all connected and helps understand how those connections affect biological functions — such as the actions of drugs, the production of hormones and the health-preserving process of DNA repair.