The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday (9) that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to David Baker, with the other half shared by Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, for their pioneering work in protein science.
David Baker, from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, was recognized “for computational protein design,” while Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, from Google DeepMind, London, UK, were awarded “for protein structure prediction.”
“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.
BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 #NobelPrize in Chemistry with one half to David Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction.” pic.twitter.com/gYrdFFcD4T— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2024
David Baker’s remarkable achievement came in 2003 when he designed a new protein from scratch. Since then, his team has developed a variety of innovative proteins used in pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials, and sensors.
Meanwhile, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper revolutionized protein science with their 2020 breakthrough, AlphaFold2, an AI model that predicts the structure of nearly all 200 million known proteins. This breakthrough has been applied globally to tackle significant challenges, including antibiotic resistance and plastic degradation.
“Life could not exist without proteins. That we can now predict protein structures and design our own proteins confers the greatest benefit to humankind,” stated the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The Nobel Prize ceremony will take place on December 10 in Stockholm.
