Scientists Win Nobel Prize for Protein Research

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their pioneering work in computational protein design and structure prediction. David Baker from the University of Washington received half the prize for his contributions to computational protein design, while Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind shared the other half for their groundbreaking AlphaFold2 AI model, which predicts protein structures from DNA sequences. This model has revolutionized the field by providing accurate predictions of almost all known proteins, significantly aiding drug development and understanding biological processes. Since its introduction, AlphaFold2 has been utilized by over two million researchers globally. The Nobel Committee emphasized that this work fulfills a decades-long ambition to predict protein structures based solely on their amino acid sequences. The award highlights the transformative impact of AI in scientific research and its potential to unlock new avenues in biology and medicine.