Biotech giant Benchling launch Alphafold AI from DeepMind

An artificial intelligence program developed by DeepMind that can predict the 3D structure of a protein from an amino acid sequence with unprecedented accuracy, AlphaFold is emblematic of a new era of modern biotech -- "data-driven, open-sourced, collaborative and ultimately, faster than ever", according to Benchling. Born out of a Benchling hackathon, the vast majority of labs are unable to access AlphaFold today, despite being open source to use. With Benchling's AlphaFold beta feature, scientists can not only predict 3D structures of novel proteins directly within Benchling, but also centralise experimental context, collaborate with teammates, and connect with downstream scientific workflows on a single, secure platform. President and co-founder of Benchling, Ashu Singhal, explained: "Our team gets excited about two things: science and bringing software to science. By making AlphaFold available to the biotech industry at the click of a button, scientists will be able to seamlessly experiment with this exciting advancement and find new ways to leverage AlphaFold output in their research. While the use cases for AlphaFold are still being explored and proven, Benchling's goal with its beta feature is to support its community."