New research shows how artificial intelligence, combined with advanced experimental science, can help find “hidden” and unexplored proteins in the human body and reveal what they actually do, according to a new study published in Nature.

The discovery suggests a new way to study how cells communicate, survive stress and possibly support disease.

Researchers used AI to compare the shapes of more than 214 million predicted proteins. Instead of looking only at genetic sequence, they searched by three-dimensional form and found hidden members of the G protein-coupled receptor, or GPCR, family, a group that helps cells sense and respond to extracellular signals.