---
id: "2018-12-02-alphafold-1-casp13"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2018-12-02-alphafold-1-casp13/"
as_of: "2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00"
date: "2018-12-02"
date_precision: day
category: science
importance: 4
confidence: medium
status: [Result confirmed]
verification: Peer-reviewed
sources: 2
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-04"
---

As of: 2026-11-13 13:49 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2018-12-02-alphafold-1-casp13/

# AlphaFold (v1) tops the CASP13 protein-structure prediction assessment

DeepMind's first AlphaFold ranked first in the CASP13 blind assessment of protein structure prediction, an early sign that deep learning could crack the protein folding problem.

## Key facts
- CASP13 results announced December 2018
- Predicted inter-residue distances with a deep network, then optimized structures
- Nature paper published January 2020
- Precursor to AlphaFold 2, which essentially solved single-chain structure prediction at CASP14 (2020)

## What happened

AlphaFold placed first overall among ~100 groups in the free-modeling category of CASP13.

## Why it matters

Marked AI's entry into a grand challenge of biology and set up the 2020 AlphaFold 2 breakthrough.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): in its training data
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): in its training data
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen (training cutoff March 2026): in its training data
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): in its training data

## Sources

1. [Improved protein structure prediction using potentials from deep learning (Nature, DOI)](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1923-7) (doi.org, paper)
2. [Wikipedia: AlphaFold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaFold) (en.wikipedia.org, discussion)

## Changes

- 2026-09-29: Added science block (science & math tab)
- 2026-09-29 (filed): Created

## Related

- 2020-11-30: [AlphaFold 2 solves protein structure prediction at CASP14](https://postcutoff.com/e/2020-11-30-alphafold-2/index.md)