AI-Designed Enzymes

1.5k words, 8 minutes reading time

A Baker lab paper came out yesterday titled ‘Computational design of serine hydrolases’. As is the case for many Baker lab paper, the results are incredible. And, similarly, the paper itself is incredibly hard to read.

Luckily, you needn’t read it yourself, at least if you aren’t an enzyme designer who needs undiluted information! Because, just yesterday as well, I, alongside my co-writer Eryney Marrogi, published a short article covering the paper in Asimov Press. Here’s the article. We go through why enzymes are hard to redesign, prior attempts to redesign enzymes, and why this paper is a step-level change in our ability to do so.

If you’re starved for more material, I published this speculative fiction biology piece with Asimov in September 2024, titled ‘Models of Life’.

I also wrote an essay titled ‘There aren’t enough smart people in biology doing something boring’ alongside Eryney in October 2024.