Podcast: Ri on AI: Understanding AlphaFold with Dame Janet Thornton

Dame Janet Thornton talks about AlphaFold, the AI programme that can determine a protein structure from its amino acids alone.

Listen time: 43:25
CSBIOPASSION on Wikimedia Commons.

We’re exploring how AI is impacting different areas of scientific research, and in this episode we discuss AlphaFold, the machine learning programme from DeepMind that can determine a protein structure from its amino acids alone. Lisa Derry is joined by Dame Janet Thornton, an oracle of bioinformatics and former Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute, to discuss how AlphaFold has revolutionised its field, and what it could do in the future.

Producer: Lia Hale
Production assistants: Sarah Dick and James Kavanagh
Interviewer: Lisa Derry
Music: Joseph Sandy