A.I. Puts its artistic talent at the service of the creation of new human proteins
Inspired by digital art generators like DALL-E, biologists are building artificial intelligences that can fight cancer, flu and Covid.< /p>
An example of an animated diffusion model of proteins generated by the AI. Video by Ian C. Haydon/University of Washington Institute for Protein Design
Last spring, an artificial intelligence lab called OpenAI unveiled technology that lets you create digital images simply by describing what you want to see. Called DALL-E, it sparked a wave of similar tools with names like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Promising to accelerate the work of digital artists, this new generation of artificial intelligence captured the imagination of the public and experts and threatened to generate new levels of misinformation online.
Social media is now full of amazingly conceptual images, in which incredibly detailed and often photorealistic images are generated by DALL-E and other tools. "Photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square." “Cute corgi in a house made of sushi.” "Jeflon Zuckergates."
But when some scientists consider this technology, they see more than just a way to create fake photos. They see a path to a new cancer treatment or a new flu shot or a new pill that helps you digest gluten.
Using many of the same techniques that underpin DALL-E and other art generators, these scientists are generating blueprints for new proteins - tiny biological mechanisms that can alter our body's behavior.
Our bodies naturally produce around 20,000 proteins, which handle everything from digesting food to moving oxygen through the blood. Now researchers are working to create proteins that aren't found in nature, in hopes of improving our ability to fight disease and do things our bodies can't do on their own. p>
David Baker, director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, has been making craft proteins for over 30 years. In 2017, he and his team showed that it was possible. But they hadn't anticipated how the rise of new A.I. technologies would suddenly accelerate this work, reducing the time needed to generate new plans from years to weeks.
"What we need are new proteins that can solve modern problems, like cancer and viral pandemics," Dr. Baker said. "We can't wait for evolution." He added: "Now we can design these proteins much faster and with much higher success rates, and create much more sophisticated molecules that can help solve these problems."
Inspired by digital art generators like DALL-E, biologists are building artificial intelligences that can fight cancer, flu and Covid.< /p>An example of an animated diffusion model of proteins generated by the AI. Video by Ian C. Haydon/University of Washington Institute for Protein Design
Last spring, an artificial intelligence lab called OpenAI unveiled technology that lets you create digital images simply by describing what you want to see. Called DALL-E, it sparked a wave of similar tools with names like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Promising to accelerate the work of digital artists, this new generation of artificial intelligence captured the imagination of the public and experts and threatened to generate new levels of misinformation online.
Social media is now full of amazingly conceptual images, in which incredibly detailed and often photorealistic images are generated by DALL-E and other tools. "Photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square." “Cute corgi in a house made of sushi.” "Jeflon Zuckergates."
But when some scientists consider this technology, they see more than just a way to create fake photos. They see a path to a new cancer treatment or a new flu shot or a new pill that helps you digest gluten.
Using many of the same techniques that underpin DALL-E and other art generators, these scientists are generating blueprints for new proteins - tiny biological mechanisms that can alter our body's behavior.
Our bodies naturally produce around 20,000 proteins, which handle everything from digesting food to moving oxygen through the blood. Now researchers are working to create proteins that aren't found in nature, in hopes of improving our ability to fight disease and do things our bodies can't do on their own. p>
David Baker, director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, has been making craft proteins for over 30 years. In 2017, he and his team showed that it was possible. But they hadn't anticipated how the rise of new A.I. technologies would suddenly accelerate this work, reducing the time needed to generate new plans from years to weeks.
"What we need are new proteins that can solve modern problems, like cancer and viral pandemics," Dr. Baker said. "We can't wait for evolution." He added: "Now we can design these proteins much faster and with much higher success rates, and create much more sophisticated molecules that can help solve these problems."
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