Of those 100 proteins, the team created five of the artificial proteins and tested their functionality in cells, seeing how well they compared to an enzyme found in chicken eggs aptly named “hen egg white lysozyme” (HEWL). Two of the proteins demonstrated activity similar to HEWL, breaking down bacteria’s cell walls.
“The enzymes work (out-of-the-box) as well as proteins that have evolved over millions of years of evolution,” Madani said. The team also found that the model was able to capture evolutionary patterns, without specifically being trained to do so.
While AI has been used to generate proteins, this study differs a bit from prior research and further expands the idea of what is possible with language models.
