Google disbands Nobel-winning AlphaFold team to focus on Gemini AI
What's the story
Google DeepMind has disbanded the team behind AlphaFold, its Nobel award-winning artificial intelligence (AI) system that revolutionized protein structure prediction. The move is part of a strategic shift toward more research into Gemini AI. Instead of having dedicated teams for each scientific problem, DeepMind is now focusing on general-purpose AI systems that can assist in research across different fields.
Team changes
Researchers reassigned to Gemini and other projects
According to the Financial Times, most of the original authors of AlphaFold papers have been reassigned in the last year.
DeepMind has confirmed that many researchers have been moved to projects centered around Google's Gemini large language model (LLM).
Others are now working on enzyme design, genomics, and nuclear fusion.
Some former AlphaFold researchers have also joined Alphabet's AI drug discovery company Isomorphic Labs.
Continued availability
AlphaFold database remains accessible for researchers
Despite the restructuring, AlphaFold and its extensive protein structure database are still accessible to researchers around the world.
The change in strategy doesn't mean an end to AlphaFold. Instead of having a dedicated team for it, DeepMind has reassigned many scientists to Gemini and other AI projects.
This shift is aimed at developing general-purpose AI systems for scientific discovery.
Ongoing support
AlphaFold's impact on biological research
AlphaFold remains one of the biggest breakthroughs in AI and biology since its launch in 2018. The system solved the decades-old protein folding problem, revolutionizing biological research.
Its open-access database of over 200 million predicted protein structures continues to aid drug discovery, vaccine research, and studies into diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Team transitions
Key members of the original AlphaFold team depart
Earlier this year, John Jumper and Jonas Adler were reassigned to Google's internal Code Strike team, which focuses on improving the company's AI coding capabilities.
However, Jumper later announced that he was leaving Google to join Anthropic.
Adler has also joined Anthropic along with fellow AlphaFold researcher Alexander Pritzel, marking a major transition in the original AlphaFold team.