Nobel in Chemistry 2024: David Baker, Demis Hassabis

Nobel in Chemistry 2024 Awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, John Jumper for Protein Work

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded one half of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to David Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction.”

Proteins are large, complex molecules that play numerous critical roles in the body. They are composed of smaller units called amino acids, which link together in long chains. There are 20 different types of amino acids, and the specific sequence in which they are arranged determines the protein’s structure and function.

In 2003, Professor David Baker from the University of Washington successfully used these building blocks to design a new protein, unlike any other. Since then, his research team has crafted one imaginative protein after another. Following the announcement, he said he is “very excited and honored” to receive the award.

In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an AI model called AlphaFold2, part of Google’s DeepMind project, which accurately predicted the structure of virtually all 200 million proteins identified by researchers.

This announcement was made in Stockholm as the much-anticipated Nobel Week continues, recognizing achievements across six fields. It forms part of Alfred Nobel’s will, which specifically mentioned chemistry as one of the key prize categories. Chemistry was not only the cornerstone of Nobel’s work but also the second field he cited in his will, reflecting its fundamental importance to his scientific contributions.

Earlier, the Royal Swedish Academy announced the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to AI pioneers J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for foundational discoveries that enable machine learning through artificial neural networks.

The 2024 Nobel announcements began with the Medicine Prize, awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for discovering microRNA and its role in gene regulation.

Aakhir Tak Editor-in-Chief

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