When I first heard of chemistry, it felt like magic—there were all these elements and ways to combine them that made the world seem full of endless possibilities, especially in organic chemistry. The idea that atoms could build everything around us was mind-blowing. At the same time, in biology class, we were diving into cells, but no one ever connected the two subjects. I remember wondering, “What are the molecules inside a cell? Why aren’t we talking about that when we’re learning chemistry?”
I didn’t go far with organic chemistry—A.J. Mee’s book was as far as I got—but I had a lightbulb moment reading about Bauhaus architecture’s “form is function.” Suddenly, large molecules made sense. In cells, molecules interact not just because of their chemistry but because of their shapes, like keys fitting into locks.
Proteins are a great example. They control everything in the body—growth, healing, responses, even death. They’re massive molecules, and they need to fold in precise ways to function. This folding is critical, and figuring out how it works is one of the biggest puzzles in biology. You can’t just observe it under a microscope—proteins are too small, and they don’t behave well in isolation. So, scientists use computer models to simulate how they fold.
The problem? Protein folding simulations take a huge amount of computing power. Traditional methods are slow, often taking years to model a single protein. In the 90s, we had screensavers on our PCs that just kept running while the computers were idling. Someone came up with the idea to put them to work on protein folding problems, when the computers were idling. It was that big a deal!
But that changed with AlphaFold2, a breakthrough AI system developed by DeepMind. AlphaFold2 revolutionized the field by predicting protein structures with remarkable accuracy in just days. It came out in 2021 and already won the Nobel prize!!
With the latest Nobel prize in Chemistry going to Alphafold2 team, we are two for two. AI is eating basic sciences!
PS: I look forward to the day when chatGPT wins the Nobel prize for literature!!
– Dr. Ram Kanneganti
