Protein Folding is a prime example of how rapidly AI can bring technological advances in numerous fields. To witness this, two LangTec team members, Maximilian and Pat, attended the FoldForum II event.

FoldForum II was hosted by a cooperation of AUFBRUCH.Hamburg and Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg (Aric e.V.) at the DeepTech Campus. As with the first FoldForum event, this cooperation has been a great host and the DeepTech Campus alone is worth a visit for it’s striking appearance and new, comfortable interior.

After Dr. Natalie Rotermund from Aric e.V. and Dr. Dr. Alexander El Gammal from AUFBRUCH.Hamburg introduced the event and the speakers, Dr. Felix Tobola from Aric e.V. started the talks with an in-depth overview of what protein folding is and how it works. He created many moments of insights with his very visual presentation. His talk was followed by another great talk by Dr. Kilian Guse and Head of Bioinformatics Brian Dawson from GQ Bio Therapeutics. They showed how this new technology can be creatively used to design pharmaceutical products, presenting astonishing technology which would probably only be found in science fiction novels just a few years ago.

A highlight was the following panel discussion between the different speakers as well as the audience. Topics ranged from technical details of the AI models to philosophical questions about the epistemic implications of AI-based protein folding for academic research, driven by the manifold interests and backgrounds of the audience.

We would like to thank Aric e.V. and AUFBRUCH.Hamburg for hosting such an inspiring event with so many knowledgeable speakers and are looking forward to future events in this series!