Google Backs $2.3 Million Project to Help Find the Next Peptide Medicines
The next big peptide discovery could start with AI helping scientists decide what to test.
On October 16, the University of Toronto reported that researchers are developing OpenPep, a public database and AI platform supported by $2.3 million from Google. Its goal is to predict which peptides can bind to proteins involved in disease.
The team plans to produce up to 500 disease relevant proteins, test large peptide libraries against them and use the results to train its models. Researchers will then check those predictions experimentally, feeding the results back into the system.
The project will seek suggestions for targets involving cancer, childhood and rare diseases, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease. Its data will be available for researchers to use and build upon.
This is a research project, with potential treatments still ahead. The ambition is to give scientists a stronger starting point and help them choose more promising experiments.
For anyone following peptides, that opens a bigger conversation: which disease would you most want researchers to tackle next?
Source: University of Toronto
(https://t.co/0eopGzILwv)
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Peptides sound futuristic until you realize your body has been making them your entire life.
Some help signal hunger. Others help regulate growth.
The fascinating part is how something so small can send a message that changes what your body does next.
Peptides will continue to be researched and studied regardless of the bad results. People with diabetes would have never made it past a certain age if they stopped at the bad effects of the insulin peptide. Yes, Insulin is a peptide. Humans will never stop trying to improve themselves. The rate of progress for these peptides are going to exponentially explode as the a.i and biology fields overlap in the coming years. That canβt be deterred.
@Ivanaeus77@BowTiedYukon Surely this is satire but if not: Not pressing enough for serious research or trials. Not out of the picture but definitely not on the agenda