Putting the power of AlphaFold into the world’s hands
Key ideas
Hassabis announces an open AlphaFold database of protein structures and argues that placing such results in scientists' hands will accelerate research well beyond DeepMind.
- 1
Follow through on a public pledge
Hassabis writes that DeepMind pledged at the CASP assessment to share its methods and give broad access. He reports delivering through peer-reviewed papers in Nature, open-sourced code and a database built with EMBL-EBI.
- 2
Release the results, not just methods
Hassabis says the database offers open access to predictions for the human proteome and 20 other organisms. He says DeepMind plans to expand coverage to almost every sequenced protein and to update the system and database periodically.
- 3
Let outside researchers find the uses
Hassabis reports what he calls promising signals from early collaborators. His examples include DNDi's research into neglected diseases, enzyme engineering for plastic recycling at Portsmouth, antibiotic resistance at Colorado Boulder and SARS-CoV-2 biology at UCSF.
- 4
Credit the long build and predecessors
Hassabis describes five years of work that required overcoming setbacks and producing several new algorithmic innovations. He places it on top of generations of work by protein imaging pioneers, prediction specialists and structural biologists.
- 5
State the thesis behind the work
Hassabis says DeepMind's thesis has always been that AI can speed up breakthroughs across science. He writes that DeepMind believes AlphaFold is AI's most significant contribution to scientific knowledge so far, and that AI has the potential to change how science is done.
In Demis’s words
“Most excitingly, in the hands of scientists around the world, this new protein almanac will enable and accelerate research that will advance our understanding of these building blocks of life.”
Demis Hassabis·Putting the power of AlphaFold into the world’s hands·Read in context(opens the original in a new tab)“For the AlphaFold team at DeepMind, this work represents the culmination of five years of enormous effort, including having to creatively overcome many challenging setbacks”
Demis Hassabis·Putting the power of AlphaFold into the world’s hands·Read in context(opens the original in a new tab)“At DeepMind, our thesis has always been that artificial intelligence can dramatically accelerate breakthroughs in many fields of science, and in turn advance humanity.”
Demis Hassabis·Putting the power of AlphaFold into the world’s hands·Read in context(opens the original in a new tab)About this entry
- Published
- Not stated on the page
- Publisher
- deepmind.google
- Type
- Essay
- Language
- English
- Added
- Nov 2, 2026
- Source last checked
- Nov 2, 2026
Cover photo of Demis Hassabis, not from this work: John Sears, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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