David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Solving Protein Structure Code

Stockholm, October 9 :
David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumper have been bestowed the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2024 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as revealed on Wednesday.

One half of the prize will go to David Baker for his contributions to "computational protein design," and the other half will go to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper for their work in "protein structure prediction," which is what the Academy says.

The Academy remarked that both winners had "cracked the code for proteins' remarkable structures," with Baker producing new protein types and Hassabis and Jumper's AI model solving a 50-year-old prediction problem for complex protein structures, opening up promising new avenues for protein structure research.

Twenty amino acids, sometimes called the "building blocks of life," make up a typical protein. Using these building pieces, David Baker created a novel protein in 2003. Proteins that can function as nanomaterials, small sensors, medicines, vaccinations, and other novel designs have been developed by his research group since then.

A second finding is associated with the ability to foretell the structures of proteins. Essential to proteins' functions are the three-dimensional structures that are formed when the amino acids are bonded in long chains. The "notoriously" difficult issue of predicting protein structures from amino acid sequences has plagued researchers since the 1970s. But four years ago, something really groundbreaking happened.

The structure of virtually all 200 million proteins discovered by researchers has been predicted using an artificial intelligence model called AlphaFold2, which was introduced by Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper in 2020. More than two million users in 190 different countries have used AlphaFold2 since it was first released. Among the many uses for this model are the visualization of plastic-degrading enzymes and the facilitation of studies into antibiotic resistance.

Making truly remarkable proteins is the subject of one of the acknowledged discoveries of this year. The other gives life to a goal that has been held in the works for half a century: using amino acid sequences to predict protein structures. The Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, Heiner Linke, stated that these findings pave the way for tremendous opportunities.

The vast variety of life on Earth is a testament to the extraordinary chemical versatility of proteins. They regulate and propel all the chemical processes that are fundamental to life. Proteins are not only the building blocks of different tissues, but they also function as hormones, signaling molecules, antibodies, and more.

David Baker will receive half of the eleven million Swedish kronor awarded by the Swedish Royal Academy, while Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper will each receive half.