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New AI tool models protein dynamics, aiding drug discovery and protein research

Understanding how proteins function with artificial intelligence
Tetraspanin CD9 protein: comparison of crystallographic structures, BioEmu samples and molecular dynamics (MD). Credit: Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adv9817

A major scientific advance in protein modeling developed by Microsoft Research AI for Science, has been published in . The study introduces BioEmu, a generative deep learning system that emulates the equilibrium behavior of proteins with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

As the biological function of proteins depends on dynamical changes in their structure, the ability to predict these structural changes quickly and accurately opens the door to more rational design decisions in , helping to reduce the failure rate of drugs in clinical trials.

BioEmu can generate thousands of statistically independent protein structures per hour on a single graphics processing unit (GPU). "This reduces the cost and the time required to analyze functional structure changes in proteins," says Professor Frank No茅, who led the project.

BioEmu integrates over 200 milliseconds of molecular dynamics simulations with to predict structural ensembles and thermodynamic properties with near-experimental accuracy.

The system captures complex biological phenomena such as the formation of hidden binding pockets, domain motions, and local unfolding鈥攁ll critical to understanding protein function and drug design. BioEmu also predicts protein stability changes with an accuracy that can compete with laboratory experiments.

"Thereby, BioEmu provides a scalable method to model at the genomic scale," adds Professor Cecilia Clementi.

The BioEmu code and model are freely available under the permissive MIT license. Alongside the publication, Microsoft Research has also released the molecular dynamics simulation dataset that was generated to train BioEmu. This dataset鈥攃omprising over 100 milliseconds of simulations across thousands of protein systems鈥攔epresents the largest sequence-diverse protein simulation set publicly available to date.

While the research was conducted entirely at Microsoft, Freie Universit盲t Berlin is proud to acknowledge the contributions of affiliated researchers.

The research was led by Frank No茅, Partner Research Manager at Microsoft Research AI for Science in Berlin, who also holds an honorary professorship at Freie Universit盲t Berlin.

Cecilia Clementi, Einstein Professor for Theoretical and Computation Biophysics at Freie Universit盲t Berlin, made key contributions to the work as a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research.

More information: Sarah Lewis et al, Scalable emulation of protein equilibrium ensembles with generative deep learning, Science (2025).

Journal information: Science

Citation: New AI tool models protein dynamics, aiding drug discovery and protein research (2025, July 11) retrieved 14 July 2025 from /news/2025-07-ai-tool-protein-dynamics-aiding.html
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