AlphaFold: The making of a scientific breakthrough

Intellectual

Hopeful

Intense

Collaborative

Inspirational

Focused

This video documents the journey of the DeepMind team in London as they tackle the 50-year-old grand challenge in biology known as the "protein folding problem." It explains the critical role of proteins and the difficulty in predicting their 3D structures. The team develops an AI system called AlphaFold and enters it into the CASP competition, the 'Olympics' of protein structure prediction. The film highlights the team's progress, challenges, including working through the COVID-19 pandemic, and their ultimate breakthrough in the CASP14 competition, where AlphaFold achieves atomic-level accuracy, effectively solving the problem and opening new possibilities for drug discovery and understanding diseases.

Full Video

Shorts

An introduction to the long-standing scientific challenge of protein folding and its fundamental importance to all life.

Unlock the baffling mystery at the heart of biology! For decades, scientists have grappled with protein folding – the ultimate architectural puzzle that dictates the function of everything from your heartbeat to your thoughts. Discover why cracking this code is not just an academic pursuit, but a quest to understand and perhaps even re-engineer life itself.

Curiosity

Wonder

Intellectual Challenge

Anticipation

DeepMind's founder discusses protein folding as a "holy grail" problem and their belief that AI can provide significant breakthroughs.

Step into the headquarters of DeepMind, where the world's leading AI experts are channeling their innovation towards biology's biggest questions. Hear how they're embarking on a mission to leverage artificial intelligence, believing it could be the catalyst scientists have long awaited to solve complex biological problems and transform our understanding of the natural world.

DeepMind enters the highly competitive CASP challenge, seen as the "Olympics of protein folding," with researchers expressing both the long-standing difficulty of the problem and their commitment to finding a solution.

Join the DeepMind team as they embark on their most ambitious undertaking yet: competing in CASP, the ultimate test in protein structure prediction. Hear about the decades-long struggle to unravel this biological puzzle and witness the collective determination as they strive to prove that artificial intelligence can overcome one of science's most enduring challenges.

Challenge

Determination

Anticipation

Intellectual Curiosity

After initial progress, DeepMind's founder reflects on facing a "brick wall" and the need to return to the drawing board, emphasizing determination and the relentless pursuit of new ideas.

Witness the raw reality of scientific research as the DeepMind team hits an unexpected 'brick wall' in their protein folding quest. Experience the moments of introspection and renewed resolve, as they confront setbacks head-on, returning to the drawing board with fresh ideas and an unshakeable belief that persistence will lead to a breakthrough.

The arrival of Spring 2020 and the global pandemic causes significant disruptions, forcing researchers into remote work and highlighting the human challenges faced by the team.

Step into Spring 2020 as the world grinds to a halt, and silent city streets become a stark backdrop to a new reality. Experience the personal impact of a global pandemic on the DeepMind team, as researchers adapt to working from home, facing delays and isolation, yet committed to their ambitious scientific mission.