Google DeepMind scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry | Nobel Prizes

Two Google DeepMind scientists and an American biochemist have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for breakthroughs in predicting and designing the structure of proteins.

Demis Hassabis, the British founder of DeepMind, and John Jumper, who led the development of the company's AI model AlphaFold, which predicts the structure of proteins based on their chemical sequence, will share half the prize.

The other half went to Prof. David Baker of the University of Washington, whose computational research has led to the development of entirely new types of proteins that are used in vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.

The winners were announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm and will share the 11 million Swedish krona (£810,000) prize for computational protein design and protein structure prediction.

Heiner Linke, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said: “One of the discoveries being recognized this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures based on their amino acid sequences. Both discoveries open up enormous possibilities.”

At a press conference immediately after the announcement, Baker said he was woken up by a call from the academy telling him he had won and described how the ambition to create entirely new proteins began more than 20 years ago dream began. Advances in computer science and scientific understanding in recent years have paved the way for this vision to have significant impact around the world, including in the development of novel vaccines against the coronavirus.

“At the outset, we sensed that it might be possible to create a whole new world of proteins that would address many of the problems facing humans in the 21st century,” Baker said. “Now it’s possible.”

Proteins direct and control all chemical reactions that form the basis of life. They function as hormones, antibodies and building blocks of various tissues. Baker's mission was to develop new proteins that do not occur in nature, and in 2003 he succeeded. Since then, his group has produced novel proteins with wide-ranging applications in medicine and materials science.

Proteins are generally made up of 20 different amino acids linked together in long strands that fold into three-dimensional structures. It is these structures – as well as the chemical composition – that determine how proteins interact and whether they bind to a drug in the body, for example. Since the 1970s, scientists have been working to predict the three-dimensional structures of proteins based on their chemical sequences, but the problem has been notoriously difficult and progress has been slow.

There was a breakthrough four years ago. In 2020, Hassabis and Jumper announced the development of an AI model called AlphaFold 2. With its help, they were able to predict the structure of virtually all of the 200m proteins that researchers have identified. Since its breakthrough, AlphaFold 2 has been used by more than 2 million people in 190 countries, for example to understand antibiotic resistance and develop enzymes that can break down plastic.

Dr. Annette Doherty, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “The benefits of this research are remarkable, as we can all look forward to applications that will improve our health and wellbeing.” I am sure her work will be just as inspiring for future generations will be like the discoveries of their predecessors who received this prestigious award.”