Brandeis University Reports Findings in Genomics and Genetics (Predicting Multiple Conformations Via Sequence Clustering and Alphafold2).

A study conducted at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts has found that the protein prediction tool AlphaFold2 can accurately predict multiple conformations of proteins. This is significant because a protein's biological function often depends on these different conformations, and disease-causing mutations can affect these conformations. The researchers developed a method called AF-Cluster, which uses sequence clustering to enable AlphaFold2 to sample alternative states of proteins. They tested this method on the metamorphic protein KaiB and found that both conformations were distributed in clusters across the KaiB family. This research has the potential to impact the prediction of protein energy landscapes and illuminate biological function. [Extracted from the article]