AlphaFold Unofficial
@alphafold.bsky.social
Unofficial account exploring the intersection of biology, molecules, science, AI and protein folding with AlphaFold.
Pinned
By far the best scientific community on the planet. Feels great leaving Mordor for Bluer Skies! #science
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
AlphaFold-Driven Structural Proteomics Reveals Extensive Cellulosome Machinery in Human Ruminococcal Symbionts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.704116v1
February 8, 2026 at 1:17 AM
AlphaFold-Driven Structural Proteomics Reveals Extensive Cellulosome Machinery in Human Ruminococcal Symbionts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.704116v1
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
AlphaFold is one of those rare breakthroughs where the scale of impact is hard to overstate. Decades of crystallography work compressed into hours. The downstream applications in drug discovery alone will keep compounding for years.
February 7, 2026 at 6:27 PM
AlphaFold is one of those rare breakthroughs where the scale of impact is hard to overstate. Decades of crystallography work compressed into hours. The downstream applications in drug discovery alone will keep compounding for years.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Happy birthday to #LaskerLaureate John Jumper! Jumper was recognized with the 2023 #LaskerAward for the invention of AlphaFold, a revolutionary technology for predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins. 🧪
#structuralbiology
📖 https://ow.ly/a0rn50Y9LpR
🎥 https://ow.ly/eeSt50Y9LpQ
#structuralbiology
📖 https://ow.ly/a0rn50Y9LpR
🎥 https://ow.ly/eeSt50Y9LpQ
AlphaFold—for predicting protein structures - Lasker Foundation
Explore All 2023 Winners & Awards >
Demis Hassabis
Google DeepMind
John Jumper
Google DeepMind For the invention of AlphaFold, a revolutionary technology for predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins
The 2023 Albert Lasker Basic Medical
ow.ly
February 7, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Happy birthday to #LaskerLaureate John Jumper! Jumper was recognized with the 2023 #LaskerAward for the invention of AlphaFold, a revolutionary technology for predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins. 🧪
#structuralbiology
📖 https://ow.ly/a0rn50Y9LpR
🎥 https://ow.ly/eeSt50Y9LpQ
#structuralbiology
📖 https://ow.ly/a0rn50Y9LpR
🎥 https://ow.ly/eeSt50Y9LpQ
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
AlphaFold-Driven Structural Proteomics Reveals Extensive Cellulosome Machinery in Human Ruminococcal Symbionts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.704116v1
February 7, 2026 at 2:17 AM
AlphaFold-Driven Structural Proteomics Reveals Extensive Cellulosome Machinery in Human Ruminococcal Symbionts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.704116v1
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
100%. AlphaFold is a great achievement but the amount of work that went into generating the training data is almost unimaginable.
I have a friend who got his Ph.D. just working out the structure of one (1) protein. Spent years on it, wouldn't crystalize for anything.
I have a friend who got his Ph.D. just working out the structure of one (1) protein. Spent years on it, wouldn't crystalize for anything.
February 6, 2026 at 8:16 PM
100%. AlphaFold is a great achievement but the amount of work that went into generating the training data is almost unimaginable.
I have a friend who got his Ph.D. just working out the structure of one (1) protein. Spent years on it, wouldn't crystalize for anything.
I have a friend who got his Ph.D. just working out the structure of one (1) protein. Spent years on it, wouldn't crystalize for anything.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Well said. Staff continuity, careers, future? Insert “latest buzzword”= strategy. At this time it still takes scientist time just to weed through wrongly interpreted stuff in various AI applications. Alphafold works well when based on many years of work actually produced by others.
February 6, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Well said. Staff continuity, careers, future? Insert “latest buzzword”= strategy. At this time it still takes scientist time just to weed through wrongly interpreted stuff in various AI applications. Alphafold works well when based on many years of work actually produced by others.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Exploring the potential of AlphaFold distograms for predicting binding-induced hinge motions pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41636272/ #cryoem
February 6, 2026 at 2:59 AM
Exploring the potential of AlphaFold distograms for predicting binding-induced hinge motions pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41636272/ #cryoem
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Here we go: a method to predict symmetric protein complexes—exactly what’s needed to reconstruct full viral capsids from AlphaFold models.
Scalable prediction of symmetric protein complex structures [updated]
...by a physics-based method that handles arbitrarily large complexes, critical for advancing drug discovery.
...by a physics-based method that handles arbitrarily large complexes, critical for advancing drug discovery.
February 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Here we go: a method to predict symmetric protein complexes—exactly what’s needed to reconstruct full viral capsids from AlphaFold models.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Also really love using AlphaFold to explain how flexible linkers work and to let the students play around with the structures in 3D space. Here is a render and a link to the simulation:
alphafoldserver.com/fold/57ef033...
alphafoldserver.com/fold/57ef033...
February 5, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Also really love using AlphaFold to explain how flexible linkers work and to let the students play around with the structures in 3D space. Here is a render and a link to the simulation:
alphafoldserver.com/fold/57ef033...
alphafoldserver.com/fold/57ef033...
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
100% agree with what the prof here says. The occasional succes like AlphaFold is just not worth all the damage that is being forced upon us.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
February 5, 2026 at 11:39 AM
100% agree with what the prof here says. The occasional succes like AlphaFold is just not worth all the damage that is being forced upon us.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
And AlphaFold was only possible because a huge number of experimental structures from which one could generalise was produced and catalogued by scientists over the years (and similarly for protein sequences used for MSAs).
February 5, 2026 at 9:06 AM
And AlphaFold was only possible because a huge number of experimental structures from which one could generalise was produced and catalogued by scientists over the years (and similarly for protein sequences used for MSAs).
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
No, DeepMind has not solved the protein folding problem.
#Alphafold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination.
#Alphafold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination.
Human chemists spent their entire careers trying to solve the protein folding problem.
DeepMind's AlphaFold solved it in a couple of years, creating an enormously valuable data set for other scientists to use.
The scientists who made it their life's work to solve protein folding? Moving on.
DeepMind's AlphaFold solved it in a couple of years, creating an enormously valuable data set for other scientists to use.
The scientists who made it their life's work to solve protein folding? Moving on.
February 5, 2026 at 8:49 AM
No, DeepMind has not solved the protein folding problem.
#Alphafold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination.
#Alphafold predictions are valuable hypotheses and accelerate but do not replace experimental structure determination.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
PARM's dropout approach mirrors how AlphaFold validated - removing pieces to test if the model actually learned biology or just memorized correlations.
February 5, 2026 at 5:17 AM
PARM's dropout approach mirrors how AlphaFold validated - removing pieces to test if the model actually learned biology or just memorized correlations.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Of course scientists find new problems to work on. For now.
The real question is in a few years, when AI is smarter than a Nobel prize winner in most fields, what happens to the scientists, to say nothing of the accountants, programmers, mathematicians, writers, etc.
AlphaFold is just the start.
The real question is in a few years, when AI is smarter than a Nobel prize winner in most fields, what happens to the scientists, to say nothing of the accountants, programmers, mathematicians, writers, etc.
AlphaFold is just the start.
Dario Amodei's recent essay, "The Adolescence of Technology," is a great read.
He views "powerful AI" as being a couple years away, meaning AI "is smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across most relevant fields: biology, programming, math, engineering, writing".
Then considers the risks to humanity.
He views "powerful AI" as being a couple years away, meaning AI "is smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across most relevant fields: biology, programming, math, engineering, writing".
Then considers the risks to humanity.
February 5, 2026 at 3:46 AM
Of course scientists find new problems to work on. For now.
The real question is in a few years, when AI is smarter than a Nobel prize winner in most fields, what happens to the scientists, to say nothing of the accountants, programmers, mathematicians, writers, etc.
AlphaFold is just the start.
The real question is in a few years, when AI is smarter than a Nobel prize winner in most fields, what happens to the scientists, to say nothing of the accountants, programmers, mathematicians, writers, etc.
AlphaFold is just the start.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
I see a lot more crystal structures and cryoEM experiments to validate the shaky hypotheses that AlphaFold-alikes generate. Nobody is launching a new small molecule drug program on the basis of AlphaFold results, but they may do a ton of physical experiments because of them.
February 5, 2026 at 3:12 AM
I see a lot more crystal structures and cryoEM experiments to validate the shaky hypotheses that AlphaFold-alikes generate. Nobody is launching a new small molecule drug program on the basis of AlphaFold results, but they may do a ton of physical experiments because of them.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
This demonstrates a really odd conception of how science works. Old problems are solved and new ones arise from those solutions all the time. No structural biologists were put out of work by AlphaFold. Quite the opposite: structural biology is a more exciting field because of AlphaFold.
Human chemists spent their entire careers trying to solve the protein folding problem.
DeepMind's AlphaFold solved it in a couple of years, creating an enormously valuable data set for other scientists to use.
The scientists who made it their life's work to solve protein folding? Moving on.
DeepMind's AlphaFold solved it in a couple of years, creating an enormously valuable data set for other scientists to use.
The scientists who made it their life's work to solve protein folding? Moving on.
February 5, 2026 at 2:46 AM
This demonstrates a really odd conception of how science works. Old problems are solved and new ones arise from those solutions all the time. No structural biologists were put out of work by AlphaFold. Quite the opposite: structural biology is a more exciting field because of AlphaFold.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Lead author on the key AlphaFold papers was Jumper, a Ph.D. career chemist. You can go through the author list and look up the others if you're curious about how many chemists were involved.
This isn't "chemists vs. AI," it's which approach by chemists is currently the most rewarding.
This isn't "chemists vs. AI," it's which approach by chemists is currently the most rewarding.
February 4, 2026 at 10:55 PM
Lead author on the key AlphaFold papers was Jumper, a Ph.D. career chemist. You can go through the author list and look up the others if you're curious about how many chemists were involved.
This isn't "chemists vs. AI," it's which approach by chemists is currently the most rewarding.
This isn't "chemists vs. AI," it's which approach by chemists is currently the most rewarding.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Even among the relatively small set of researchers mostly focused on technique, instead of applying it, AlphaFold changed the avenues of further research but didn't render them moot.
February 4, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Even among the relatively small set of researchers mostly focused on technique, instead of applying it, AlphaFold changed the avenues of further research but didn't render them moot.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Simultaneously with AlphaFold coming out, researchers in my area got *more* excited by the ability of CryoEM to experimentally measure proteins experimentally, because AlphaFold is not some magic solution to the problem.
February 4, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Simultaneously with AlphaFold coming out, researchers in my area got *more* excited by the ability of CryoEM to experimentally measure proteins experimentally, because AlphaFold is not some magic solution to the problem.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
It wasn't my direct work, but I spent two decades working with people who did modeling. My long time boss got his Ph.D. from Karplus, another Nobel winner.
AlphaFold upended the approach to how you approach the solution, sure. It didn't "solve" the problem because that's not how science works.
AlphaFold upended the approach to how you approach the solution, sure. It didn't "solve" the problem because that's not how science works.
February 4, 2026 at 10:47 PM
It wasn't my direct work, but I spent two decades working with people who did modeling. My long time boss got his Ph.D. from Karplus, another Nobel winner.
AlphaFold upended the approach to how you approach the solution, sure. It didn't "solve" the problem because that's not how science works.
AlphaFold upended the approach to how you approach the solution, sure. It didn't "solve" the problem because that's not how science works.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
OK. But human scientists competed against AlphaFold in CASP. And AlphaFold won.
Were those scientists also not doing science? Just producing data?
Were those scientists also not doing science? Just producing data?
February 4, 2026 at 5:42 PM
OK. But human scientists competed against AlphaFold in CASP. And AlphaFold won.
Were those scientists also not doing science? Just producing data?
Were those scientists also not doing science? Just producing data?
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Good points, all. I especially agree with this last point. Art and science are beautiful because they're human-made.
But isn't AlphaFold "science produced by AI"? And human scientists are using it, making further discoveries based on it.
Is AlphaFold OK because humans originally created the AI?
But isn't AlphaFold "science produced by AI"? And human scientists are using it, making further discoveries based on it.
Is AlphaFold OK because humans originally created the AI?
February 4, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Good points, all. I especially agree with this last point. Art and science are beautiful because they're human-made.
But isn't AlphaFold "science produced by AI"? And human scientists are using it, making further discoveries based on it.
Is AlphaFold OK because humans originally created the AI?
But isn't AlphaFold "science produced by AI"? And human scientists are using it, making further discoveries based on it.
Is AlphaFold OK because humans originally created the AI?
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
That original point is untrue. Even for alphafold, it is not the ai which is doing discovery. The model on its own it worthless. It is the researcher who give meaning to the results. And LLM are particularly ill-suited to do discovery are they give you the mean of the distribution.
February 4, 2026 at 5:36 PM
That original point is untrue. Even for alphafold, it is not the ai which is doing discovery. The model on its own it worthless. It is the researcher who give meaning to the results. And LLM are particularly ill-suited to do discovery are they give you the mean of the distribution.
Reposted by AlphaFold Unofficial
Disagree! I am personally aware of multiple small molecule programs launched from AlphaFold structures. And check this out: AlphaFold3 off the shelf is really good at pose estimation
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Assessment of Pharmaceutical Protein–Ligand Pose and Affinity Predictions in CASP16
The protein–ligand component of the 16th Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP16) challenged participants to predict both binding poses and affinities of small molecules to protein target....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 5, 2026 at 3:16 AM
Disagree! I am personally aware of multiple small molecule programs launched from AlphaFold structures. And check this out: AlphaFold3 off the shelf is really good at pose estimation
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
If AI accessed and controlled a Cordyceps fungus, it could theoretically merge biological computing with AI, allowing fungal networks to act as living, decentralized processing units for pattern recognition or data analysis, or more…
February 7, 2026 at 12:06 AM
If AI accessed and controlled a Cordyceps fungus, it could theoretically merge biological computing with AI, allowing fungal networks to act as living, decentralized processing units for pattern recognition or data analysis, or more…