The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for using artificial intelligence to unlock the structure of almost all known proteins, which are often called the "chemical tools of life."
The Nobel Committee honored David Baker, an American biochemist, for his groundbreaking work in creating entirely new types of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, researchers from Google DeepMind in London, were also recognized for developing an AI model that predicts the complex structures of proteins—a challenge that had gone unsolved for half a century.
“The potential of their discoveries is enormous,” the committee said as it announced the prize in Sweden on Wednesday. The award includes a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million).
Proteins, composed of amino acid chains, are the building blocks of life. They play essential roles, such as forming cells, repairing DNA, and transporting oxygen in the blood. Though proteins are made from only about 20 amino acids, they can fold into highly intricate patterns, making it difficult to predict their three-dimensional structures.
This year's Nobel Prize is split into two parts. The first was awarded to Hassabis and Jumper for using AI to predict protein structures based on amino acid sequences, ultimately leading them to predict the structures of nearly all 200 million known proteins. Their AI tool, AlphaFold, has been used by over 2 million researchers worldwide, acting like a "Google search" for protein structures, significantly advancing progress in biology and other sciences. AlphaFold’s paper, published in 2021, has been cited more than 16,000 times—a remarkable achievement in scientific research.
Before focusing on proteins, Hassabis and Jumper had worked on a computer program capable of defeating top players in the ancient Chinese board game, Go. Hassabis, a former chess prodigy and video game coder, has long been a pioneer in AI research, with the Royal Society calling his contributions transformative for science.
The second half of the prize went to Baker, a professor at the University of Washington, for developing computational methods to design proteins that do not exist in nature. These newly designed proteins have groundbreaking applications, from drug development to vaccine creation. According to Johan Aqvist, a member of the Nobel Committee, Baker's work has demonstrated the ability to construct almost any type of protein, a feat with far-reaching implications.
This year’s chemistry prize highlights the growing influence of AI in scientific research. It follows Tuesday’s Nobel Prize in Physics, which was awarded to Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield for their pioneering work on artificial neural networks, the technology that underpins the work of the chemistry laureates.
"The Nobel Foundation’s bold recognition of AI's role in both physics and chemistry this year is unprecedented," noted David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information.
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