Computer algorithms are currently revolutionising biology

Artificial intelligence can help predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins. Beat Christen describes how such algorithms should soon help to develop tailored artificial proteins. Computer algorithms have been a helpful tool in biomedical research for decades, and their importance has been growing steadily over that time. But what we're now experiencing is nothing short of a quantum leap; it overshadows all that came before and it will have unforeseen effects. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have made it possible to use nothing but the linear sequence of the building blocks of proteins - amino acids - to deliver extremely accurate predictions of the three-dimensional structure into which this chain of amino acids will assemble. Grasping the importance of this development hinges on knowing that biology on a cellular level is actually always about spatial interactions between molecules - and that it's the three-dimensional structure of these molecules that determine those interactions. Once we understand the structures and interactions in play, we understand the biology.