Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to three scientists for 'protein research'

Stockholm

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 has been awarded to three scientists with one half going to David Baker for computational protein design while the other half jointly going to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for protein structure prediction. 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences declared the winners on Wednesday (Oct 9), adding that the trio cracked the code for proteins' amazing structures - life's ingenious chemical tools.  

While Baker succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins, Hassabis and Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures.

“One of the discoveries being recognised this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences. Both of these discoveries open up vast possibilities,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be awarded on December 10.

What did the Nobel Prize winners discover?

Proteins are described as life's building blocks, consisting of 20 different amino acids. Since 2003, Baker, a professor at the University of Washington, and his research group have succeeded in producing one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.  

Meanwhile, Hassabis and Jumper made a stunning breakthrough in the field four years ago when they presented an AI model called AlphaFold2, using which the scientists have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified. 

AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries since then, with researchers now better-equipped to understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.

Watch | AI Pioneers Geoffrey Hinton And John Hopfield Win Nobel Prize For Physics

Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". Nobel died in 1895, but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will before the first prizes were awarded. 

Nobel named the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to award the prizes for chemistry and physics, the Swedish Academy for Literature, Sweden's Karolinska Institute Medical University for Physiology or Medicine, and the Norwegian Parliament for Peace.

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Last year the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was jointly awarded to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.

(With inputs from agencies)