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AlphaFold2 and the future of structural biology

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 28, pages 704–705 (2021)Cite this article

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To the Editor — AlphaFold2 is a machine-learning algorithm for protein structure prediction that has now been used to obtain hundreds of thousands of protein models. The resulting resource is marvelous and will serve the community in many ways. Here I discuss the implications of this breakthrough achievement, which changes the way we do structural biology.

Imagine a website where you could download a reliable three-dimensional model of your protein of interest. Until recently, this was just a dream. Now such structure prediction has become reality, at least for many monomeric proteins. As a result of a collaboration between the company DeepMind and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, hundreds of thousands of protein models were published online 22 July 2021.

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Acknowledgements

I thank S. Dodonova, J. Söding and D. Tegunov for comments.

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  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany

    Patrick Cramer

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Correspondence to Patrick Cramer.

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Cramer, P. AlphaFold2 and the future of structural biology. Nat Struct Mol Biol 28, 704–705 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00650-1

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