Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for prediction of protein structure

This was reported by Ukrinform with reference to the award page on the social network X.

“The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to David Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction.” the statement said.

It is noted that proteins are usually composed of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as the “building blocks of life.”

In 2003, David Baker managed to use these “blocks” to develop a new protein that was unlike any other protein.

Since then, his research team has created one “protein creation” after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials, and tiny sensors.

Other winners of this year's Nobel Prize, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, presented an artificial intelligence model called AlphaFold2 in 2020.

With its help, they were able to predict the structure of almost all 200 million proteins identified by researchers. Since its breakthrough, the AlphaFold2 AI system has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries.

Among the many scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can degrade plastic.

As reported, the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday were American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ravkin for their discovery of microRNAs and their role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

On Tuesday, the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics were American scientist John Hopfield and Canadian researcher Jeffrey Hinton.

Tomorrow, on October 10, the winners of the literature prize will be announced, and on Friday, the winner of the Peace Prize will be announced in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

The winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced on October 14.

The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards, which is annually given for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions or significant contributions to culture or society. The amount of the prize varies depending on the income of the Nobel Foundation. This year, it will amount to 11 million Swedish kronor [about USD 1.1 million].

The Nobel Prize ceremony will be held at Stockholm City Hall on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.