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By Amir Daftari
News Reporter
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded Wednesday to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for their groundbreaking work in predicting and designing protein structures, the essential building blocks of life.
Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, stated that the award recognized research that established connections between amino acid sequences and protein structures. "That was actually called a grand challenge in chemistry, and in particular in biochemistry, for decades. So, it's that breakthrough that gets awarded today," he said.
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Baker is affiliated with the University of Washington in Seattle, while Hassabis and Jumper are both researchers at Google DeepMind in London. Baker designed a novel protein in 2003, and his research team has since generated numerous innovative protein creations. These include proteins that serve as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials, and tiny sensors, according to the Nobel committee.
"The number of designs that they have produced and published, and … the variety is absolutely mind-blowing. It seems that you can almost construct any type of protein with this technology," said Professor Johan Åqvist of the Nobel committee.
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Hassabis and Jumper developed an artificial intelligence model capable of predicting the structure of nearly all the 200 million proteins identified by researchers. Linke remarked that scientists had long aspired to predict the three-dimensional structures of proteins. "Four years ago in 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper managed to crack the code. With skillful use of artificial intelligence, they made it possible to predict the complex structure of essentially any known protein in nature," Linke noted.
"Another dream of scientists has been to build new proteins to learn how to use nature's multi-tool for our own purposes. This is the problem that David Baker solved," he continued. "He developed computational tools that now enable scientists to design spectacular new proteins with entirely novel shapes and functions, opening endless possibilities for the greatest benefit to humankind."
Last year's chemistry award was given to three scientists for their research on quantum dots, tiny particles just a few nanometers in diameter that emit bright colored light, with applications in electronics and medical imaging.
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This year's Nobel announcements began Monday, with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun receiving the medicine prize. Founding figures in machine learning—John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton—were awarded the physics prize. The announcements will continue with the literature prize on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, and the economics award on October 14.
The prize includes a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1 million), from a bequest left by the award's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press
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