SYDNEY, July 10 (Xinhua) — Australian scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to create a synthetic protein that kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria like E. coli.
This marks the first time an Australian team has generated a ready-to-use biological protein using AI, placing them alongside countries like the United States and China in rapidly generating thousands of proteins for faster, more affordable drug development and diagnostics, the Melbourne-based Monash University said on Thursday.
The team developed the AI Protein Design Platform using advanced AI-driven tools, including recently developed software to rapidly create custom proteins for pharmaceutical and diagnostic applications, said a Monash University statement.
“Using these tools and those we are developing in-house, we can engineer proteins to bind a specific target site or ligand, as inhibitors, agonists or antagonists, or engineered enzymes with improved activity and stability,” said Daniel Fox, the study’s lead author and PhD student at Monash University.
The study, published in Nature Communications, pointed out that AI has reduced protein engineering from decades to seconds, speeding up the development of treatments for infections, cancer, snakebites, and other conditions.
The Australian platform is modeled on pioneering work by American biochemist and Nobel laureate David Baker, enabling the creation of entirely new proteins designed for specific tasks, according to Rhys Grinter from Monash University, the study’s co-lead author.
This innovation is expected to accelerate drug discovery, reduce costs, and provide new solutions to antibiotic resistance, Grinter said. Enditem