NEW DELHI: The Nobel prize in Chemistry 2024 has been awarded to David Baker for “for computational protein design” with the opposite half collectively awarded to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein construction prediction.”
The Nobel committee on the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made this announcement on Wednesday, a day after two pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, received the physics award for synthetic intelligence.
Final 12 months, the chemistry prize was awarded to a trio of scientists for his or her analysis on quantum dots, that are minuscule particles measuring only some nanometers in diameter.
Who’re the laureates and what did they develop
David Baker: “Computational protein design”
Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry David Baker, aged 62 has “succeeded with the virtually inconceivable feat of constructing totally new sorts of proteins,” the committee stated in an announcement.
His work has led to the creation of proteins that “can be utilized as prescription drugs, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors,” it added.
In recent times, his laboratory has produced a sequence of groundbreaking protein creations, together with modern nanomaterials during which as much as 120 proteins spontaneously hyperlink collectively. These developments have opened up thrilling potentialities for brand spanking new supplies and functions in science.
Demis Hassabis & John M. Jumper: “Protein construction prediction”
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, have efficiently harnessed synthetic intelligence to foretell the construction of virtually all identified proteins.
Demis and John, leaders at Google Deepmind, have developed a groundbreaking “AI mannequin to unravel a 50-year-old downside: predicting proteins’ complicated constructions.”
Hassabis, 48, and Jumper, born in 1985, have been broadly purported to be contenders for this 12 months’s Nobel Prize for his or her work on the AI mannequin AlphaFold.
In 2020, they launched an AI mannequin referred to as AlphaFold2, which has since enabled the prediction of the construction of nearly all 200 million proteins recognized by researchers. Since their groundbreaking achievement, AlphaFold2 has been utilized by over two million individuals throughout 190 international locations. This innovation has a variety of scientific functions, together with advancing our understanding of antibiotic resistance and visualizing enzymes able to breaking down plastic.
This software predicts the three-dimensional construction of proteins primarily based on their amino acid sequences.
The Nobel bulletins, which span over six days, started on Monday with People Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun being honored with the medication prize.
The prize features a money award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million), which originates from a bequest left by the award’s founder, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to simply accept their awards at ceremonies held on December 10, marking the anniversary of Nobel’s demise.
The literature prize shall be introduced on Thursday, adopted by the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
Whereas the economics award shall be revealed on Oct. 14.