AI Speeds Up Protein Design, Helping Researchers Develop New Compounds Faster

AI is being used to design new proteins faster, helping researchers develop promising compounds in months instead of years.

The AI uses the same diffusion modeling as image generators to tweak random pixels into the desired protein shape.

Massive protein databases give the AI examples to learn from in protein design.

Other fields like materials science have less organized data so AI applications there are harder.

Some hope AI can analyze all scientific literature and suggest new hypotheses, though human guidance is still key.