Google DeepMind расформировала команду AlphaFold — нобелевский проект по белкам

Google DeepMind disbanded a separate AlphaFold team — the protein 3D structure prediction project for which the lab's founders received a Nobel Prize. This was reported on July 29, 2026 by the British newspaper Financial Times: researchers from the key team were redistributed across several of the company's strategic projects.

What happened to the AlphaFold team

DeepMind no longer maintains AlphaFold as a standalone team: according to Financial Times data from July 29, 2026, key researchers were moved to other strategic directions within the lab. After the reorganization, no separate structure remains around AlphaFold, and the specialists will continue their work as part of other projects.

• Report date — July 29, 2026, source — Financial Times
• Google DeepMind eliminated the separate AlphaFold team
• Researchers were redistributed across several strategic projects
• AlphaFold is a system for predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins
• For its development, DeepMind's founders received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

What is AlphaFold

AlphaFold is DeepMind's artificial intelligence system that predicts a protein's three-dimensional structure from its amino acid sequence. The breakthrough AlphaFold2 version was released in 2021 and effectively solved the protein folding problem that scientists had struggled with for about half a century. In 2022, DeepMind opened the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, which collects predicted structures for almost all proteins known to science — over 200 million entries.

Why it matters

Disbanding the AlphaFold team is a rare move, because this very project brought DeepMind its highest scientific recognition. In 2024, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein structure prediction was awarded to the company's co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis and researcher John Jumper. The AlphaFold database is used by biologists worldwide to study diseases and develop drugs, so the fate of the team behind the Nobel-winning result matters beyond DeepMind alone.

What's behind the reorganization

The reorganization fits into DeepMind's overall strategy, notes Financial Times: instead of an isolated scientific team, the lab is redistributing specialists across priority directions. The publication does not specify exactly where the AlphaFold researchers are moving. In parallel, the company is also developing protein science commercially — through its subsidiary Isomorphic Labs, which applies AlphaFold-style approaches to the search for and development of new drugs together with pharmaceutical companies.

According to

Financial Times, DeepMind disbanded the separate AlphaFold team and moved its researchers to other strategic projects; there is no longer a standalone structure around the project.

— Financial Times report, July 29, 2026

What this means

Even a Nobel-winning project doesn't guarantee autonomy inside a large AI lab. DeepMind is consolidating talent around corporate priorities and folding scientific breakthroughs like AlphaFold into a general research and product pipeline, rather than keeping them as separate teams. For science, the key question now is whether the company will maintain AlphaFold's pace of development and data openness once there is no longer a dedicated specialist team behind the project.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AlphaFold?

AlphaFold is an AI system from Google DeepMind that predicts the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequence. The project's open database contains more than 200 million predicted structures.

What did AlphaFold win the Nobel Prize for?

In 2024, DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis and researcher John Jumper shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein structure prediction — work built on AlphaFold.

Is the AlphaFold project now shut down?

Financial Times reports on the disbanding of the separate team and the transfer of researchers to other projects, not on AlphaFold being shut down; there is no report of the database or models being discontinued.