Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024: David Baker, Demis Hassabis, John M. Jumper's remarkable work on protein awarded

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded in two halves: one half to David Baker for his pioneering work in computational protein design and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper for their groundbreaking contributions to protein structure prediction.

Proteins, which are essential macromolecules in biological systems, are composed of chains of amino acids. There are 20 distinct amino acids, and the unique sequence in which they are arranged determines a protein's structure and function. 

David Baker, a professor at the University of Washington, made history in 2003 by successfully designing a new protein that had never existed before. His innovative research group has since developed numerous novel protein structures. Following the award announcement, Baker expressed his excitement and honour at receiving the prestigious accolade.

Meanwhile, in 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper introduced AlphaFold2, an advanced AI model developed under Google's DeepMind initiative. This model achieved the remarkable feat of accurately predicting the structures of nearly all known proteins, totalling approximately 200 million.

Hassabis serves as the CEO of Google DeepMind in London, while Jumper holds the position of Senior Research Scientist at the same organisation.

The announcement came amid Nobel Week in Stockholm, which celebrates achievements across six diverse fields. The Nobel Prize, established by Alfred Nobel's will, prominently includes chemistry as a key category, reflecting the profound influence of chemistry in both his inventions and the broader scientific landscape.

Earlier this week, the Academy announced the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to pioneers in artificial intelligence, J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton, for their foundational discoveries in machine learning and artificial neural networks.

Additionally, the Medicine Prize was awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its significant role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.