We’re exploring how AI is impacting different areas of scientific research, and in this episode we discuss AlphaFold, the machine learning programme from DeepMind that can determine a protein structure from its amino acids alone. Lisa Derry is joined by Dame Janet Thornton, an oracle of bioinformatics and former Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute, to discuss how AlphaFold has revolutionised its field, and what it could do in the future.

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Search the AlphaFold database: https://alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/
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Producer: Lia Hale

Production assistants: Sarah Dick and James Kavanagh

Interviewer: Lisa Derry

Music: Joseph Sandy

Ri on AI: Understanding AlphaFold with Dame Janet Thornton