A molecular quirk unique to octopuses makes them better at building proteins - Science | AAAS

AI design tools make proteins that break bonds that are stable for hundreds of years. A protein is a chain of amino acids held together by what are called peptide bonds. On their own, those bonds are extremely stable; they’re estimated to have a half-life of several hundred years. But in Earth’s environment, most proteins don’t last nearly that long. That’s because organisms have evolved a handful of ways to catalyze the break-up of peptide bonds, which have diversified into countless specialized protein-digesting enzymes. Proteases are everywhere and generally make short work of any proteins that find their way into the environment.

Google DeepMind researchers who developed the method say that this will help uphold scientific integrity and prevent misuse of protein designs Google DeepMind has developed a way to watermark proteins designed by artificial intelligence (AI) during the design process itself, which could help scientists better track the origin of these structures.