Comment by simsla
2 years ago
I asked a structural biologist friend of mine (world class lab) about the impact of alphafold.
They said it's minimal.
In most cases, having a "probably" isn't good enough. They use alphafold to get early insights, but then they still use crystallography to confirm the structure. Because at the end of the day, you need to know for sure.
I'm not a biologist, but that doesn't sound minimal if crystallography is expensive.
It sounds like how we model airplanes in computers, but still test the real thing - i wouldn't call the impact of computer modelling on airplane design to be minimal.