A next-gen AI protein folder that could help science? Meta's good for something

AI researchers at Meta say they have developed the largest protein-folding model of its kind to date, and that it is capable of predicting the structure of more than 600 million proteins.… The team released the 15-billion-parameter ESM-2 transformer-based model and a database of its protein structure predictions, dubbed the ESM Metagenomic Atlas, on Tuesday. This database includes protein shapes that haven't been observed yet by scientists. Proteins are complex biological molecules containing up of 20 types of amino acids, and perform all sorts of biological functions in organisms. Crucially, they fold up into intricate 3D structures, the shape of which is vital to how they operate; knowing their shape helps scientists understand how they function, and from that, helps them figure out ways to mimic, alter, or counter that behavior. Unfortunately, you can't just take the amino acid formula and immediately work out the eventual structure.