This is how biotech labs are using AI inspired by DALL-E to invent new drugs

Welcome back to What’s Next in Tech with MIT Technology Review. In today’s edition, find out how two biotech labs are using generative AI to invent new drugs, and learn about the challenges associated with California’s ambitious goals for offshore floating wind farms. Then, understand how a new app could help people with long covid to manage their symptoms and boost scientific understanding of the condition.?

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Two labs have announced powerful new generative models that can design proteins not seen in nature

The news: Text-to-image AI models like OpenAI’s DALL-E 2—programs trained to generate pictures of almost anything you ask for—have sent ripples through the creative industries. Now, two biotech labs are using this type of generative AI, known as a diffusion model, to conjure up designs for new types of protein never seen in nature.

Why it matters: Proteins are the fundamental building blocks of living systems. These protein generators can be directed to produce designs for proteins with specific properties, such as shape or size or function. In effect, this makes it possible to come up with new proteins to do particular jobs on demand. Researchers hope that this will eventually lead to the development of new and more effective drugs. Read the story.

California’s coming offshore wind boom faces big engineering hurdles

Soon, dozens of companies are expected to compete for the right to lease the first commercial wind power sites off the coast of California in a federal online auction that could kick-start the state’s next clean energy boom.

The state has an ambitious goal: building 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2045. That’s equivalent to nearly a third of the state’s total generating capacity today, or enough to power 25 million homes.

But the plans are facing a daunting geological challenge—the continental shelf drops steeply just a few miles off the California coast—alongside enormous engineering and regulatory obstacles. Read the story.

A new app aims to help the millions of people living with long covid

The news: A new app could help people with long covid cope with their condition by giving them a clearer understanding of what helps—and hinders—their health. The platform, called Visible, collects data every day to help people understand how their symptoms fluctuate.

How it works: Visible tracks a user’s heart rate variability in order to recommend when someone should take it easy for the next few days to avoid exhausting themselves, checking their heart rate in the morning and getting them to score their symptoms in the evening.?

Why it matters: Millions of people around the world live with long covid. Behind the numbers, there is an enormous amount of individual pain, misery, and frustration, especially regarding medical ignorance about the condition. Visible’s co-founder hopes to not only help individual people better manage long covid, but to provide better data to help researchers gain a better understanding of the condition too. Read the story.

MIT Technology Review’s annual Innovators Under 35 competition is now open for nominations. Nominate yourself or someone you know and join us this Thursday, December 8 for the TR35 Festival, a free event honoring this year’s Innovators.

Get ahead with our most-discussed stories:

1. How Twitter’s “Teacher Li” became the central hub of China protest information — In his own words, the Chinese painter shares how he became a one-person newsroom during a week of intense protests against China's zero-covid policy.
2. GPT-4 is coming, but OpenAI is still fixing GPT-3 — A new version of the large language model, called ChatGPT, still makes stuff up… but it can also admit when it's wrong.
3. Your microbiome ages as you do—and that’s a problem — Our guts are home to a complex ecosystem of bacteria. Can we tweak it to stay healthy as we age?

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Image credits: Getty Images; Stephanie Arnett/MITTR, Envato