By Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard and Marie Mannes
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -U.S. Scientists David Baker and John Jumper and Briton Demis Hassabis gained the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for work on decoding the construction of proteins and creating new ones, yielding advances in areas corresponding to drug improvement.
Half the prize was awarded to Baker “for computational protein design” whereas the opposite half was shared by Hassabis and Jumper “for protein structure prediction”, mentioned the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which makes the award.
Baker, 62, is a professor on the College of Washington, in Seattle, whereas Hassabis, 48, is CEO of Google (NASDAQ:) DeepMind, the AI analysis subsidiary of Google, the place Jumper, 39, additionally works as senior analysis scientist.
Hassabis and Jumper utilised synthetic intelligence to foretell the construction of just about all recognized proteins, whereas Baker discovered methods to grasp life’s constructing blocks and create fully new proteins, the award-giving physique mentioned.
“It’s totally surreal to be honest, quite overwhelming,” Hassabis informed Reuters, thanking DeepMind and Google, and his colleague Jumper.
“David Baker, we’ve got to know in the last few years, and he’s done some absolutely seminal work in protein design,” he mentioned. “So it’s really, really exciting to receive the prize with both of them.”
The award is the second this week given for work involving synthetic intelligence, underscoring the rising significance of machine studying and enormous language fashions for science.
“That’s always been my passion, but … it’s like any powerful general-purpose technology, it can be used for harm as well if put in the wrong hands and used for the wrong ends,” Hassabis mentioned.
The prize, broadly thought to be among the many most prestigious within the scientific world, is value 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).
‘SPECTACULAR NEW PROTEINS’
Baker mentioned he was asleep when the cellphone rang and he acquired the announcement.
“Then my wife began screaming very loudly so I couldn’t really hear very well,” Baker mentioned by cellphone to the press convention saying the prize.
“I’m really excited about all the ways in which protein design makes the world a better place in health, medicine and really, outside technology,” he mentioned.
In 2003, Baker was ready to make use of amino acids, typically described as life’s constructing blocks, to design a brand new protein that was not like any present one, the academy mentioned.
That opened the door to the fast creation of various proteins for makes use of in areas corresponding to prescription drugs, vaccines, nanomaterials and even tiny sensors.
“He developed computational tools that now enable scientists to design spectacular new proteins with entirely novel shapes and functions, opening endless possibilities for the greatest benefits to humankind,” Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, mentioned of Baker’s contribution.
In 2020, Hassabis and Jumper introduced an AI mannequin referred to as AlphaFold2. With its assist, they’ve been in a position to predict the construction of nearly all of the 200 million proteins that researchers have recognized, the academy mentioned.
THIRD PRIZE ANNOUNCED
The third award to be handed out yearly, the chemistry prize follows these for drugs and physics introduced earlier this week.
The Nobel prizes have been established within the will of dynamite inventor and rich businessman Alfred Nobel and are awarded to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.
First handed out in 1901, 15 years after Nobel’s loss of life, it’s awarded for achievements in drugs, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. Recipients in every class share the prize sum that has been adjusted over time.
The economics prize is a later addition funded by the Swedish central financial institution.
Chemistry, near Alfred Nobel’s coronary heart and the self-discipline most relevant to his personal work as an inventor, might not all the time be essentially the most headline-grabbing of the prizes, however previous recipients embrace scientific greats corresponding to radioactivity pioneers Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie.
Final yr’s chemistry award went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov for his or her discovery of tiny clusters of atoms referred to as quantum dots, broadly used right now to create colors in flat screens, mild emitting diode (LED) lamps and gadgets that assist surgeons see blood vessels in tumours.
Alongside the money prize, the winners will probably be introduced a medal by the Swedish king on Dec. 10, adopted by a lavish banquet in Stockholm metropolis corridor.
($1 = 10.3632 Swedish crowns)