AlphaFold is expanding beyond proteins

In a previous newsletter, we asked “What's next after AlphaFold2 on protein structure prediction?” Just two weeks later, DeepMind showcased its newest work on AlphaFold, revealing that it is expanding beyond proteins to include ligands (small molecules), nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), and post-translational modifications.

The new version also improves a lot in protein-protein interaction prediction, especially antibody binding. It correctly predicts the antibody-antigen interface in 51.5% of cases, with very high accuracy predictions for 16.7% of examples. This is a very significant improvement and advancement for antibody design and drug discovery. (Unfortunately, DeepMind hasn’t released the code yet.)

The only task in which it failed to beat previous methods it RNA structure prediction. (We have a related newsletter about RNA structure prediction.)

Flagship Pioneering launches Pioneering Intelligence to harness AI for drug discovery

Flagship Pioneering, one of the well-known life sciences venture capitals, announced Pioneering Intelligence, an initiative of harnessing AI to accelerate innovation in the life sciences and beyond. It aims to capitalize on the new trends in AI and biology to drive innovation and enable value generation across the Flagship ecosystem.

Nowadays, the cost of training foundation AI models and building suitable infrastructure is well beyond the affordability of small companies and labs. It’s an expected move to have a centralized team focusing on building fundamental AI capabilities for drug discovery.

US President Biden issues an executive order on AI safety

AI safety in healthcare is one of its primary focuses. Specifically, the President directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a safety program to receive reports of—and act to remedy – harms or unsafe healthcare practices involving AI.

The first CRISPR-based therapy will come soon

In the last newsletter, we focused on the FDA’s discussion on the safety issue of a CRISPR-based therapy, “exa-cel,” for sickle cell disease. It turned out that the panel generally believed that the therapy is safe enough for patients. We will hear the FDA’s decision within a month, and exa-cel will likely become the first CRISPR-based therapy approved by FDA.

First OpenAI DevDay

OpenAI unveiled multiple products and improved models for developers at its first developer conference, making it much easier to develop AI-based products. It’s almost one year since ChatGPT was launched. We cannot believe it has advanced so much! We also have seen many healthcare-related products built based on ChatGPT and OpenAI’s API. We will showcase some of them in a later newsletter. Stay tuned!

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