A University of Missouri researcher has created a computer program that can unravel the mysteries of how proteins work together—giving scientists valuable insights to better prevent, diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases.
A University of Missouri researcher has created a computer program that can unravel the mysteries of how proteins work together—giving scientists valuable insights to better prevent, diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases.
Jianlin « Jack » Cheng from Mizzou’s College of Engineering and his student, Nabin Giri, have developed a tool called Cryo2Struct that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to build the three-dimensional atomic structure of large protein complexes, work recently published in Nature Communications. The model uses data from pictures of frozen molecules captured by powerful microscopes, or cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) images.
« Cryo-EM right now is a revolutionary, key technology for determining large protein structures and assemblies in cells », said Cheng, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
« But building protein structures from Cryo-EM data is labor intensive and requires a lot of human intervention, making it time-consuming and hard to reproduce. Our technique is fully automated and generates more accurate structures than existing methods.
