Now scientists in a University of Washington lab led by Nobel laureate David Baker have cracked the challenge, using generative AI to create proteins that grab hold of the shapeshifting molecules. The discovery could unlock a suite of new drugs and diagnostic tools.

Almost half of the proteins found in humans are intrinsically disordered, “yet we’ve had no reliable way to drug [them],” Baker said in a statement. “These studies change that by giving scientists everywhere new tools for binding the unstructured half of biology.”
The new approach to engineering proteins is described in two papers, one published today in the journal Science, and a second available as a preprint. The majority of more than two-dozen authors are from the UW’s Department of Biochemistry and the university’s Institute for Protein Design, which is led by Baker.

Researchers worldwide can access the open-source software online