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Breaking down plastic pollution

AlphaFold: Impact stories

Scientists are using AlphaFold to accelerate research in nearly every field of biology.

Over 2 million researchers in over 190 countries are using the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database to inform their research.

Explore some of their stories

From building more effective malaria vaccines to breaking down single-use plastics, AlphaFold is helping scientists accelerate research in nearly every field of biology.

It normally takes four years to identify and characterise one of these small proteins. With the help of AlphaFold we managed 23 in a few months.

Professor Renier van der Hoorn
University of Oxford

AlphaFold has allowed us to take our project to the next level, from a fundamental science stage to the preclinical and clinical development stage.

Professor Matthew Higgins
Biochemist

AlphaFold tools

AlphaFold Database and Server are freely available to the scientific community.

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Breaking down plastic pollution

Watch
28 July 2022

Breaking down plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is a critical threat to the environment. AlphaFold has helped researchers make breakthroughs that could help solve this problem.

It enabled one team in the UK to screen 100 candidate enzymes in two days, supporting their work to potentially engineer faster, more stable, and cheaper plastic-recycling enzymes.

Research credits

  • Professor John McGeehan, Centre for Enzyme Innovation, University of Portsmouth
  • Rosie Graham, Centre for Enzyme Innovation, University of Portsmouth