Nobel Prize In Chemistry For Creating New Proteins, Using Artificial Intelligence To Predict Their Structures

The Nobel Prize 2024 in Chemistry has been awarded for two different successful research studies, but protein is the common theme in them.

One half has been given to David Baker "for computational protein design" and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M Jumper "for protein structure prediction."

Hassabis and Jumper have successfully utilised artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the structure of almost all known proteins. David Baker has learned how to master life’s building blocks and create entirely new proteins.

The use of AI successfully solves a problem that chemists wrestled with for over 50 years: predicting the three-dimensional structure of a protein from a sequence of amino acids. 

Meanwhile, Baker's research gives the ability to create proteins that are loaded with new functions is just as astounding. This can lead to new nanomaterials and targeted pharmaceuticals.

It can also help in the more rapid development of vaccines, minimal sensors and a greener chemical industry. In recent years, one incredible protein creation after the other has emerged from Baker’s laboratory.

Hassabis and Jumper have used their AI model AlphaFold2 to calculate the structure of all human proteins. They also predicted the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have so far.

Google DeepMind has also made the code for AlphaFold2 publicly available, and anyone can access it. The AI model has become a gold mine for researchers.