Google DeepMind to fund CASP, as NIH funding runs out

CASP, the protein structure prediction contest that launched DeepMind’s AlphaFold to international fame and a Nobel Prize, has secured temporary funding to continue operations. The organization’s current funding — from the National Institutes of Health — is set to run out in early August.

CASP co-founder John Moult told STAT that Google-owned DeepMind will make a one-time gift to support the Community Wide Experiment on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction, better known as CASP. No amount was disclosed, but the gift will support CASP for approximately 12 months. Previously, the organization, which has two full-time employees, was receiving around $639,000 from the NIH.

“We hope this will allow the [University of California] Davis layoff notices to be canceled and normal CASP work to go forward until we again secure stable funding,” said Moult, a cell biology and molecular genetics professor at the University of Maryland, in an email. Protein Structure Prediction Center Director Krzysztof Fidelis works at UC Davis, which administers CASP’s NIH grant.