Expert Explains | Scientists can now miniaturise proteins with AI. Here’s what that unlocks

From Gulliver’s Travels to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, we have long been fascinated by the idea of shrinking ourselves or growing to giant size. Scientists at Duke University, North Carolina, have now given a version of that power to proteins. The team has come up with an artificial intelligence (AI) system termed Raygun which can miniaturise, enlarge and extensively rewrite proteins. Their work was published in the journal Nature on July 29. Rohit Singh, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and co-author of the study, explains their work and its significance. Proteins are already minuscule, typically a few nanometres across. Shrinking them sounds like a strange goal until you consider that, much as with a compact car in a crowded city, a smaller version can go places the larger one cannot. Gene therapy