The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to David Baker at the University of Washington “for computational protein design” and to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind “for protein structure prediction.”
This year’s prize is about the “chemical tools for life,” the Nobel Committee for Chemistry said in announcing the prize. “Work that once took years now takes just a few minutes thanks to this year’s chemistry laureates.”
Dr. Hassabis and Dr. Jumper, the committee said, have used their A.I. model AlphaFold2 to calculate the structure of all human proteins. The researchers also predicted the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have so far discovered when mapping Earth’s organisms.”
Dr. Hassabis and Dr. Jumper were part of a team at Google DeepMind, the company’s central A.I. lab, that developed a technology called AlphaFold. This A.I. technology can rapidly and reliably predict the physical shape of proteins and enzymes — the microscopic mechanisms that drive the behavior of viruses, bacteria, the human body and all other living things.
Proteins begin as strings of chemical compounds, before twisting and folding into three-dimensional shapes that define what they can and cannot do. Before the arrival of AlphaFold, scientists would spend months or even decades trying to pinpoint the precise shape of individual proteins.
AlphaFold could do the job in a few hours or even a few minutes.
When the Google team unveiled the technology in 2020, many scientists had assumed that such as a breakthrough was still years away. Scientists had struggled for more than 50 years to solve what was called “the protein folding problem.”
When DeepMind publicly released AlphaFold in the following years, biochemists began using the technology to speed the discovery of medicines. The technology could also lead to new biological tools, like enzymes that efficiently break down plastic bottles and convert them into materials that are easily reused and recycled.
Dr. Baker “opened up a completely new world of protein structures that we had never seen before,” Johan Aqvist, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said on Wednesday.
In 2003, the committee pointed out, Dr. Baker “succeeded in designing a new protein that was unlike any other protein,” which it said was “something that can only be described as an extraordinary development.”
His research group, the committee said, “has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.”
The impact of the laureates’ work was huge, Mr. Aqvist said. “In order to understand how proteins work you need to know what they look like and that’s what this year’s laureates have done,” he said.
Who received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
The prize went to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov for discovering and developing quantum dots, semiconductors made of tightly squeezed particles that are expected to lead to advances in electronics, solar cells and encrypted quantum information.
Who else has received a Nobel Prize in the sciences this year?
On Monday, the prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, which helps determine how cells develop and function.
On Tuesday, the prize in Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for discoveries that helped computers learn more in the way that the human brain does, providing the building blocks for developments in artificial intelligence.
When will the other Nobel Prizes be announced?
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded on Thursday by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Last year, Jon Fosse of Norway was honored for plays and prose that gave “voice to the unsayable.”
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. Last year, Narges Mohammadi, an activist in Iran was recognized “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” Ms. Mohammadi is serving a 10-year sentence in an Iranian prison where her attorneys have raised concerns about her well-being.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded on Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Last year, Claudia Goldin was awarded for her research uncovering the reasons for gender gaps in labor force participation and earnings.
All of the prize announcements are streamed live by the Nobel Prize organization.
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