Earlier this month, two groups unveiled the culmination of years of work by computer scientists, biologists, and physicists: advanced modeling programs that can predict the precise 3D atomic structures of proteins. Last week, the biggest payoff of that work arrived. One team used its newly minted artificial intelligence programs to solve the structures of 350,000 proteins from humans and 20 model organisms, such as Escherichia coli bacteria, yeast, and fruit flies, all mainstays of biological research. In the coming months, the group says it plans to expand its list of modeled proteins to all cataloged proteins, some 100 million molecules.

本月早些时候，两个小组公布了计算机科学家、生物学家和物理学家多年工作的成果：可以预测蛋白质精确 3D 原子结构的高级建模程序。上周，这项工作的最大回报到来了。一个团队使用其新开发的人工智能程序解决了来自人类和 20 种模式生物的 350,000 种蛋白质的结构，例如大肠杆菌、酵母菌和果蝇，这些都是生物研究的支柱。在接下来的几个月里，该组织表示计划将其建模蛋白质列表扩展到所有编目蛋白质，大约 1 亿个分子。