AlphaFold

AlphaFold, developed by DeepMind, is a revolutionary artificial intelligence system focused on protein structure prediction. It has significantly accelerated the development of structural biology and provided groundbreaking tools to address major challenges in the life sciences. In 2024, DeepMind was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold’s major contributions to protein structure prediction. This milestone marks a new era in the application of artificial intelligence in scientific research and affirms the profound impact of AlphaFold on global biological and medical research.

Accurate prediction of protein structures is one of the core problems in biology, as a protein's three-dimensional structure determines its function. Early scientists relied on experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to resolve protein structures. However, these traditional methods are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly. The advent of AlphaFold has made leapfrog progress, enabling the prediction of high-precision protein structures in a short period through deep learning. In protein monomer/complex modeling, AlphaFold has demonstrated unprecedented comprehensive advantages. AlphaFold Multimer, an extended version of the AlphaFold system, is specifically designed for oligomeric modeling.

Figure 1: AlphaFold prediction of monomeric protein 3D model

Figure 2: AlphaFold prediction of protein complex 3D model

Figure 3: AlphaFold Multimer prediction of protein dimer model