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Nobel Prize In Chemistry 2024: David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper Awarded For Work On Proteins

Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for work on proteins.

Nobel Prize In Chemistry 2024: David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper Awarded For Work On Proteins
Collage of David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper (Nobel prize website)
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By ETV Bharat English Team

Published : Oct 9, 2024, 3:29 PM IST

Updated : Oct 9, 2024, 7:43 PM IST

Hyderabad: The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists for their breakthrough work predicting and even designing the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. The Prize is about pro­teins, life's ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins.

Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.

The diversity of life testifies to proteins’ amazing capacity as chemical tools. They control and drive all the chemi­cal reactions that together are the basis of life. Proteins also function as hormones, signal substances, antibodies and the building blocks of different tissues.

"One of the discoveries being recognised this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences. Both of these discoveries open up vast possibilities," said Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Proteins generally consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks. In 2003, David Baker succeeded in using these blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein. Since then, his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.

The second discovery concerns the prediction of protein structures. In proteins, amino acids are linked together in long strings that fold up to make a three-dimensional structure, which is decisive for the protein's function. Since the 1970s, researchers tried to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences, but this was notoriously difficult. However, four years ago, there was a stunning breakthrough.

In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper presented an AI model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified. Since their breakthrough, AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries. Among a myriad of scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.

Life could not exist without proteins. That we can now predict protein structures and design our own proteins confers the greatest benefit to humankind.

Read More

  1. Nobel Prize In Physics 2024: John Hopfield, Geoffrey Hinton Awarded For Discoveries Which Enable Machine Learning
  2. What Is microRNA? Nobel-Winning Discovery Explained
  3. Nobel Prize In Medicine Honours Two Americans For Discovery Of microRNA

Hyderabad: The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists for their breakthrough work predicting and even designing the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. The Prize is about pro­teins, life's ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins.

Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.

The diversity of life testifies to proteins’ amazing capacity as chemical tools. They control and drive all the chemi­cal reactions that together are the basis of life. Proteins also function as hormones, signal substances, antibodies and the building blocks of different tissues.

"One of the discoveries being recognised this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences. Both of these discoveries open up vast possibilities," said Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Proteins generally consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks. In 2003, David Baker succeeded in using these blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein. Since then, his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.

The second discovery concerns the prediction of protein structures. In proteins, amino acids are linked together in long strings that fold up to make a three-dimensional structure, which is decisive for the protein's function. Since the 1970s, researchers tried to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences, but this was notoriously difficult. However, four years ago, there was a stunning breakthrough.

In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper presented an AI model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified. Since their breakthrough, AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries. Among a myriad of scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.

Life could not exist without proteins. That we can now predict protein structures and design our own proteins confers the greatest benefit to humankind.

Read More

  1. Nobel Prize In Physics 2024: John Hopfield, Geoffrey Hinton Awarded For Discoveries Which Enable Machine Learning
  2. What Is microRNA? Nobel-Winning Discovery Explained
  3. Nobel Prize In Medicine Honours Two Americans For Discovery Of microRNA
Last Updated : Oct 9, 2024, 7:43 PM IST
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