2021 Science Breakthrough of the Year

At the end of each year, Science Magazine surveys scientific discoveries in that year, to see which has the most votes which determines first place winner of all the scientific discoveries. The winner is usually decided by scientists who vote for their personal favorite discovery, and in 2021, biomedical research topped the list.

The 2021 science breakthrough of the year titled, “Protein Structures for All.” Which is how the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has impacted scientists in modeling and researching different types of proteins. Proteins do much of the work in an organism, they are made up of chains of amino acids. There are 20 total amino acids that make up all known proteins, and when the sequence is modeled, the amino acids begin to fold. Sometimes, parts of a protein do not fold until they are connected with other proteins. Before AI, scientists would use experimental techniques to model proteins atom by atom. Structures of over 180,000 proteins have been uncovered using these methods, but these ways were too slow and expensive. It would take years of work just to model one protein, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. To make the process faster, scientists have started to use computers to predict shapes proteins can take. In the last 2 decades, those predictions have gotten better. Until AI came along.

AlphaFold, a program developed by Google’s sister company, DeepMind, developed a way to model proteins in 2018. And in 2020, AlphaFold2 showed that it could predict proteins as well as experimental techniques. In 2021, researchers at DeepMind have solved 350,000 human protein structures which is 44% of all known human proteins, and is an impressive fraction of the 200 million believed to exist. Right now, AlphaFold2 is modeling the spike protein in the Omicron variant of Covid. These milestones can help scientists and researchers understand how different proteins react with each other.

← This is an image of the Covid spike protein modeled using AI. All the spirals and loops show how the protein has folded.

Although this isn’t the only major science breakthrough of 2021, a few runner-ups to “Protein Structures for All” listed below;

• “Ancient Soil DNA comes of age”

  • DNA has been a huge part of researching the past. In 2021, scientists used nuclear DNA to research the occupants of three caves, and revealed identities of humans who lived in them thousands of years ago.

• “Potent pills boost COVID-19 arsenal”

  • Vaccines have already been used against Covid-19 but a new player has made an appearance. Antiviral pills that prevent symptoms and death have shown to be effective if taken early.

• “A Psychedelic PTSD Remedy”

  • The power of psychedelic drugs, including MDMA, has raised hopes that people can ease different mental diseases like PTSD. A combination of MDMA and talk therapy can create a sense of well-being and can help people process traumatic experiences.

• “NASA lander uncovers the Red Planet’s core”

  • The interior of a rocky planet can show why the planet looks the way it does today. Before 2021, scientists have accessed two time capsules; Earth and the Moon. In 2021, NASA is bringing Mars’s planetary core into focus.

• “CRISPR fixes genes inside the body”

  • CRISPR is a gene editing tool and had its first clinical victory in 2020 when it could cure people with two inherited blood disorders; sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. In 2021, scientists experimented with deploying CRISPR directly in the human body.

• “Embryo ‘husbandry’ opens windows into early development”

  • In 2021, scientists figured out a way to grow and study embryo development. Before, scientists could keep a mouse embryo alive for only 3-4 days, but one team reported a formula expanding that to 11 days. This can help scientists understand miscarriages and birth defects.

---

Source: Science’s 2021 Breakthrough of the Year: AI Brings Protein Structures to All. https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-2021. Accessed 18 Jan. 2022.