UW Nobel winner’s lab releases most powerful protein design tool yet
The University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design has announced advances to its AI-powered protein engineering platform, including an improved enzyme-designing model and the debut of its most versatile tool, RFdiffusion3.
The improved model delivered a major step forward by solving all 41 design challenges tested, compared with only 16 for the previous version, and producing results that perform much closer to those found in nature. RFdiffusion3 marks the larger breakthrough, introducing a single, highly adaptable tool that can design proteins interacting with DNA, small molecules and other proteins, opening the door to far more complex biological applications.
“The first problem we really tackled with AI, it was largely therapeutics, making binders to drug targets,” said Dr. David Baker, Nobel laureate and director of the Institute for Protein Design. “But now with catalysis, it really opens up sustainability.”