Hard Drugs The art of protein design with AI
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Oct 15, 2025 What if you could create a protein from scratch? The hosts delve into cutting-edge tools transforming protein design, discussing applications in health, agriculture, and materials science. They explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing scientific methods, including the 'hallucination' of novel proteins. Learn about the exciting potential of engineered proteins for solving real-world problems while also considering the risks of misuse. A fascinating blend of innovation and ethics awaits!
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Hallucinating A Hepatitis B Binder
- Jacob describes hallucinating a binder against a hepatitis B protein using RF diffusion at University of Washington.
- He aimed to block dimer formation in the viral life cycle by designing a novel protein.
Diffusion Models Generate Novel Backbones
- RFdiffusion treats 3D atomic coordinates like noisy images and learns to denoise to generate new backbones.
- This enables generating totally novel structures that might fit functional constraints.
Use A Three‑Model Design Loop
- Use a 3-model loop: RFdiffusion to generate structures, ProteinMPNN for sequences, and AlphaFold to validate folding.
- Iterate and downselect computationally to tens of candidates before ordering experiments.