AI Develops New Glowing Protein Molecule Inspired by Jellyfish
An AI research company, Evolutionary Scale from New York has created a protein molecule that glows, with the help of a language model similar to ChatGPT. This AI research firm mainly works on biotechnology and has made a novel protein using the Protein Language Model (ProLLM).
This AI Research firm has introduced the first AI-generated new protein molecule that will glow and looks similar to the bioluminescence of the jellyfish molecule known as green fluorescent protein. The new protein sequence is quite different from the natural one, with less than 60% similarity.
With the help of the frontier AI language model, Evolutionary Scale Model-3 (ESM3), this AI research firm created this protein molecule. This discovery allowed them to get investments from Nvidia and Amazon. This ESM3 works differently from ChatGPT as it is trained in three fundamental biological properties of proteins, sequence, structure, and functions. Also, it is trained on 98 billion parameters making it the biggest biological model.
ESM3 lets users create proteins by giving prompts with partial details (like sequence, structure, and function keywords). It predicts the full sequence by iterating the model. This tool is mainly for scientists, giving them more control over protein creation.
EvolutionaryScale aims to make biology programmable. Their ESM3 tool uses AI to engineer biology like we do with machines and computer programs. This technology could lead to breakthroughs, drug discovery, biomedical research, and sustainability. For example, they have shown a protein that can break down plastic waste.
The potential is huge, as every cell in every organism makes proteins using ribosomes. However, there are also worries that AI could be used to create biological weapons.
Follow Hridhya Manoj for tech and AI-related news.
