2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for groundbreaking protein research
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their groundbreaking work in protein research. David Baker was awarded for his work in computational protein design, while Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper were honored for their work in protein structure prediction. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award today, a day after Physics award was given to two AI pioneers.
Baker's innovative approach to protein design
Baker, a professor at the University of Washington, was recognized for his creative use of amino acids to design a one-of-a-kind protein. Ever since his first success in 2003, Baker's research team has been churning out new proteins with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors. This pioneering work has taken the field of computational protein design to new heights.
Hassabis and Jumper revolutionize protein structure prediction
Hassabis and Jumper, both members of Google's DeepMind project, were recognized for their work on AlphaFold2 in 2020. The AI model has proven crucial in predicting the structure of nearly all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified. Hassabis is the CEO of Google DeepMind in London, while Jumper is a Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind. Their work has transformed our understanding of protein structures.
A look at previous winners and upcoming announcements
This year's Nobel announcements kicked off on Monday with Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the Medicine prize. The Physics prize was awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, two founding fathers of machine learning. The Literature prize will be announced on Thursday, followed by the Peace Prize on Friday and the Economics award on October 14.
