AI tools are designing entirely new proteins that could transform medicine

Tools that harness artificial intelligence (AI) are bringing the creation of custom proteins — until recently a highly technical and often unsuccessful pursuit — to mainstream science. Their creators are inspired by AI software that synthesises realistic images, such as Midjourney (which produced the viral ‘Pope in a puffa’ image). A similar conceptual approach, researchers have found, can churn out realistic protein shapes meeting criteria that designers specify — meaning, for instance, that it’s possible to speedily draw up proteins that should bind tightly to another biomolecule. And early experiments show that when researchers manufacture these proteins, a useful fraction do perform as the software suggests.