AI Tool Dramatically Speeds Up the Study of Protein Dynamics

Researchers say they have developed an artificial intelligence tool to analyze how proteins move and interact which is faster and more accurate than current methods, according to a study, "DeepFRET, a software for rapid and automated single-molecule FRET data classification using deep learning" published today in eLife. "Single-molecule Förster Resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is an adaptable method for studying the structure and dynamics of biomolecules. The development of high throughput methodologies and the growth of commercial instrumentation have outpaced the development of rapid, standardized, and automated methodologies to objectively analyze the wealth of produced data," write the investigators. "Here we present DeepFRET, an automated, open-source standalone solution based on deep learning, where the only crucial human intervention in transiting from raw microscope images to histograms of biomolecule behavior, is a user-adjustable quality threshold. "Its classification accuracy on ground truth data reached 95% outperforming human operators and commonly used threshold, only requiring 1% of the time.