AI’s Transformative Impact on Protein Function
David Mattin, an AI analyst, believes that AI will have a transformative impact on the functioning of proteins in the real world. He highlights a recent breakthrough by Google DeepMind called AlphaMissense, which has the potential to make more discoveries than humans and reduce the occurrence of severe diseases.
Positive Impact of AI in Disease Prevention
Mattin emphasizes the significance of AI’s potential to make a positive impact in disease prevention by exploring atoms in the human body on a deeper level. He explains that hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms compose roughly 99% of the human body.
“Some changes to protein function are benign. But some cause serious disease.”
Google DeepMind also emphasizes that not detecting missense variants (genetic mutations that affect protein function) early can lead to diseases such as cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia, or cancer. The AlphaMissense tool helps scientists identify disease-causing genetic mutations and explore new therapeutic avenues.
“We show it categorized 89% of all 71 million possible missense variants as either likely pathogenic or likely benign. By contrast, only 0.1% have been confirmed by human experts.”
The AI model outperformed human researchers in categorizing missense variants. AI tools like this can enhance research in molecular biology, clinical genetics, and statistical genetics by accurately predicting variant effects. It also addresses the expense associated with uncovering disease-causing mutations due to the uniqueness of each protein.
Hot Take: Positive Outlook for AI Stocks
Goldman Sachs recently declared a positive outlook for AI stocks, predicting a big future ahead for them. According to their research, AI companies have delivered approximately 60% year-to-date returns, leading to concerns of an AI bubble due to concentrated gains.