An ambitious push to make protein motion routine
Structural biology is ready for its next leap. The Diffuse Project sets out to turn the faint “diffuse” background in X-ray diffraction images into everyday maps of how proteins breathe and bend—information that static crystal structures and even AlphaFold predictions leave behind.

Why now?
Static structures have plateaued. AlphaFold and traditional crystallography capture only a single snapshot; the diffuse signal around Bragg peaks holds the hidden information needed to model motion. With room-temperature collection methods improving and GPUs putting heavy computation within reach, the field finally has the tools to make that signal mainstream.

Resources generously provided by Astera Institute and Voltage Park.