Researchers at EPFL have developed BindCraft, an AI-powered pipeline capable of ‘one-shot’ design of high-affinity functional protein binders across diverse therapeutic targets, including difficult-to-drug sites. Published in Nature, BindCraft integrates self-attention mechanisms and multi-source data to automate de novo binder discovery, achieving significantly improved success rates without requiring extensive experimental screening. The platform holds immense potential to accelerate drug development by enabling rapid, cost-effective generation of therapeutic proteins with tailored specificities and functionalities.