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Racing against drug-resistant bacteria

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Scientists are using AlphaFold to accelerate research in nearly every field of biology.

Over 2 million researchers in over 190 countries are using the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database to inform their research.

  • Up to 1 billion

    Research years saved by AlphaFold database structures

  • Over 600,000

    Users in low and middle income countries

  • 21%

    Of papers citing AlphaFold are related to the study of disease

Explore some of their stories

From building more effective malaria vaccines to breaking down single-use plastics, AlphaFold is helping scientists accelerate research in nearly every field of biology.

It normally takes four years to identify and characterise one of these small proteins. With the help of AlphaFold we managed 23 in a few months.

Professor Renier van der Hoorn
University of Oxford

AlphaFold has allowed us to take our project to the next level, from a fundamental science stage to the preclinical and clinical development stage.

Professor Matthew Higgins
Biochemist

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Racing against drug-resistant bacteria

Watch

28 July 2022

Racing against drug-resistant bacteria

Bacteria that have evolved the ability to defeat modern antibiotics are quickly becoming a global problem. With new antibiotics thin on the ground, scientists are looking at a different approach: targeting the resistance mechanism of bacteria.

Blocking the mechanism, which is controlled by enzymes, should allow existing antibiotics to continue to function. But understanding the structure of these enzymes had proven incredibly challenging with
purely experimental methods.

AlphaFold has helped researchers reveal structures within the resistance mechanism. This is accelerating their work on possible solutions to the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Research credits

  • Professor Marcelo Sousa, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Megan Mitchell, University of Colorado Boulder