Increasing speed of discovery
Cyril Zipfel, professor of plant molecular and cellular physiology at the University of Zurich and Sainsbury's laboratory, noticed the drastic reduction in the research timeline. They used AlphaFold in combination with comparative genomics to better understand how plants perceive changes in their environment, paving the way for more resilient crops.
AlphaFold was cited in over 35,000 articles, and over 200,000 articles included elements of AlphaFold 2 in their methodology. It also improves the quality of the work produced.
Some independent analysis Impact of AlphaFold 2, conducted by the Innovation Growth Lab, suggests that researchers using AlphaFold 2 see a more than 40% increase in the number of new experimental protein structures they report. These protein structures are more likely to be different from known structures, encouraging exploration of unexplored areas of science. Additionally, research related to AlphaFold 2 is twice as likely to be cited in clinical articles and significantly more likely to be cited in patents than typical structural biology work.
A new era of digital biology
One of the most exciting examples of AlphaFold's impact is Isomorphic laboratories – an AI drug discovery company founded in 2021, when a breakthrough model proved powerful enough to be applied to rational drug design. Since then, Isomorphic Labs has developed a unified drug design engine to radically change the way new drugs are designed and accelerate scientific discovery, with the ambition to one day solve all diseases.
Together with Isomorphic Labs, we have developed AlphaFold 3, which offers unprecedented insight into cells that we hope will transform the drug discovery process and usher in the era of “digital biology.”
The model aims to predict the structure and interactions of all the molecules of life – not only proteins, but also DNA, RNA and ligands (small molecules that make up most drugs). It can also generate common 3D structures of entire molecular complexes, enabling a holistic view of how a potential drug molecule binds to a target protein or how proteins interact with genetic material.
The AlphaFold server enables non-commercial researchers around the world to leverage this technology, increasing their ability to formulate and test new hypotheses. So far, it has helped thousands of researchers around the world make more than 8 million folds – structure and interaction predictions.
