AI-designed proteins tackle century-old problem — making snake antivenoms
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Proteins designed using artificial intelligence (AI) can block the lethal effects of toxins delivered in the venom of cobras, adders and other deadly snakes.
The AI-designed proteins could form the basis of a new generation of therapies for snakebites — which kill an estimated 100,000 people each year and are still treated much as they were a century ago.
The study, published in Nature on 15 January1, is also a demonstration of how machine learning has supercharged the field of computational protein design. Challenges that used to take months or years, or even prove impossible — such as designing a new protein to successfully block another — can now be accomplished in seconds.
“It’s scary,” says Joseph Jardine, an immunologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. “It’s gone from ‘we couldn’t even do this’ to proof-of-concept work solving actual problems.”
