STOCKHOLM — The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday, October 9, 2024 to three scientists for their groundbreaking work using artificial intelligence to unlock the mysteries of proteins, often referred to as the “chemical tools of life.”
The laureates — David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper — were recognized for their innovative approaches that have revolutionized the field of biochemistry.
The Nobel Committee praised Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington, for his pioneering efforts in creating entirely new proteins, while Hassabis and Jumper, researchers at Google DeepMind in London, were honoured for their development of AlphaFold, an AI model capable of predicting the complex structures of nearly all known proteins.
EXCLUSIVE: The moment John Jumper shares the news about his 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
“Glad you guys are all caught up now!” pic.twitter.com/OhNSwiKwgQ
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2024
A 50-Year Scientific Challenge Solved
The significance of their work cannot be overstated, as it addresses a problem that had baffled scientists for over 50 years: the ability to accurately predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins from amino acid sequences.
Proteins, essential building blocks of life, are formed by the folding of amino acid chains into complex patterns. Their structure is crucial for their function in everything from cellular repair to oxygen transport.
“The potential of their discoveries is enormous,” the Nobel Committee stated during the announcement in Sweden. The prize includes a monetary award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million).
Hassabis and Jumper’s AI program, the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, has provided researchers worldwide with immediate access to predicted protein structures.
Since its inception, the database has been used by over two million researchers, transforming fundamental biology and related fields.
Anna Wedell, a professor of medical genetics at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and a Nobel Committee member, described the achievement as “a standalone breakthrough solving a traditional holy grail in physical chemistry.”
AI at the Forefront of Scientific Discovery
The AlphaFold database has been likened to a “Google search” for protein structures, offering instantaneous models of proteins and advancing research at an unprecedented pace. The AI-driven system has made previously inconceivable leaps possible in numerous scientific fields.
“They’ve made everything public, so more or less every field can now turn to this database and use these tools to address their particular problem,” said Wedell, who utilizes the tool in her research on rare diseases.
Since the release of their seminal 2021 paper, which has been cited over 16,000 times, the work of Hassabis and Jumper has had an extraordinary impact.
David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information, called this level of citation “unprecedented” and noted that only around 500 out of 61 million scientific papers have been cited more than 10,000 times.
Creating Proteins ‘Not Seen in Nature’
The other half of the Nobel Prize went to Baker for his work in designing entirely new proteins using computational methods.
By figuring out which sequences of amino acids would result in novel protein structures, Baker has created proteins that did not previously exist in nature.
“Most of these proteins had never been seen before,” said Johan Aqvist, a Nobel Committee member. “The variety of proteins Baker has created is absolutely mindblowing.”
Baker’s innovations open the door to a wide array of applications, from pharmaceutical development to the creation of new vaccines. The committee emphasized the vast potential of these newly designed proteins in addressing global health challenges.
Proteins can be described as brilliant chemical tools. They are generally built from 20 amino acids that can be combined in endless ways. Using the information stored in DNA as a blueprint, the amino acids are linked together in our cells to form long strings.
Then the magic of… pic.twitter.com/p1CkGxHI91
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2024
A New Era for AI in Science
This year’s chemistry prize underscores the transformative role AI is playing in scientific research.
Following the Nobel Prize in physics, awarded a day earlier to Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield for their contributions to artificial neural networks, the back-to-back recognition of AI’s influence marks a pivotal moment in Nobel history.
“The acknowledgment of the transformational role of AI in research in two categories, back-to-back, is unprecedented,” Pendlebury remarked.
As scientists continue to explore the vast possibilities AI offers, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has reinforced the centrality of artificial intelligence in the future of scientific discovery.
