From Data Centers to Disease Breakthroughs: AI Is Speeding Up Science

By Doug Kelly:

Why is building America’s artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure so critically important and urgent? Because America’s AI companies, powered by local data centers, are helping compress decades of health and biology research into months and years. Here are five remarkable things AI is doing right now.

1. Unlocking nature’s hidden library. Meta’s ESMFold created a public database of 600-plus million protein structures from microbes in soil, oceans, and our guts, the “dark matter” of biology. Why it matters: new antibiotics, enzymes, and disease-fighting tools may be hiding there.
2. Mapping the machinery of life. Within a year of launching its public database, Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold released predictions for 200-plus million protein structures, covering nearly all cataloged proteins known to science. Why it matters: faster research into diseases that affect every family.
3. Cracking the protein behind “bad cholesterol.” AlphaFold helped scientists reveal the structure of apoB100, the central protein in LDL. Why it matters: heart disease is the world’s number one cause of death, and better blueprints can lead to better treatments.
4. Designing medicines faster. AlphaFold 3 models how proteins, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), and drug-like molecules interact inside cells. Why it matters: scientists can find better starting points for new medicines in months, not years.
5. Saving bees, strengthening crops. AlphaFold helped researchers understand a key honeybee immunity protein and is helping scientists study how plants respond to stress. Why it matters: healthier pollinators and tougher crops mean a more secure food supply.

Here’s the best part. Meta and Google DeepMind made these tools publicly available, giving scientists around the world access to discoveries that once would have taken millions of researcher-years.

Bottom line: AI and the data centers powering this transformative technology are how better medicines, stronger food systems, and new treatments reach ordinary people faster.