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Increasing honeybees’ chances of survival

AlphaFold: Impact stories

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From building more effective malaria vaccines to breaking down single-use plastics, AlphaFold is helping scientists accelerate research in nearly every field of biology.

It normally takes four years to identify and characterise one of these small proteins. With the help of AlphaFold we managed 23 in a few months.

Professor Renier van der Hoorn
University of Oxford

AlphaFold has allowed us to take our project to the next level, from a fundamental science stage to the preclinical and clinical development stage.

Professor Matthew Higgins
Biochemist

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Increasing honeybees’ chances of survival
28 July 2022

Increasing honeybees’ chances of survival

Researchers have used AlphaFold to understand vitellogenin, a protein fundamental to the immune system of honeybees. This allowed them to cut research time from years to days, laying the foundation for new work that could help increase this vital species’ chances of survival.

Vitellogenin is also found in other egg-laying animals, and it is vulnerable to a variety of infectious diseases. Revealing its basic functions in honeybees might help protect other vulnerable species – such as frogs, crocodiles, and turtles – from infectious diseases and pesticides.

Research credits

  • Vilde Leipart, Researcher, Norwegian University of Life Sciences