Chemist David Baker won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the near-impossible feat of designing a completely new protein in 2003, and since then his team has created one innovative protein after another, including proteins that could be used as drugs, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.
Meanwhile, two scientists, Hassabis and Jumper, created an artificial intelligence (AI) model called AlphaFold2 in 2020. With its help, they were able to predict the complex structures of almost all 200 million proteins that researchers have identified.
Since its breakthrough, AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people in 190 countries. Among its myriad scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can break down plastic. These discoveries have huge potential.
David Baker was born in 1962 in Seattle, Washington, USA. In 1989, he received his PhD from the University of California. He is currently a professor at the University of Washington.
Demis Hassabis was born in 1976 in London, UK. In 2009, he received his PhD from University College London, UK. He is currently the CEO of Google DeepMind in the UK.
John M. Jumper was born in 1985 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. In 2017, he received his PhD from the University of Chicago. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in the UK.
Three scientists appear on screen to announce the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Photo: TT News Agency
David Baker said he was "deeply honoured" to have been able to "stand shoulder to shoulder with giants".
He said colleagues “gave him signs that protein design was possible,” and others helped him design proteins. “So I would say I’m really deeply inspired by other people in the field and the people I’ve worked with.”
When asked about his favorite protein, David Baker said: "I like all proteins, but there's one that we designed during the pandemic to fight coronavirus, and I'm excited about the idea of a nasal spray made of small designer proteins that could fight all the viruses that could cause a pandemic." He added that it's a completely new, newly designed protein.
Heiner Linke, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said that Demis Hassabis and John Jumper had long dreamed of predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins.
“Four years ago in 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper cracked the code using an ingenious use of artificial intelligence. They were able to predict the complex structure of virtually any known protein in nature,” Linke said.
“Another dream of scientists is to build new proteins, to learn how to use nature’s versatile toolkit for our own purposes. This is the problem that David Baker has solved,” he added. “He has developed computational tools that now allow scientists to design spectacular new proteins with completely new shapes and functions, opening up endless possibilities that will bring the greatest benefit to humanity.”
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their work on quantum dots - tiny particles just a few nanometres in diameter that can emit very bright coloured light and have applications in everyday life including electronics and medical imaging.
Hoai Phuong (according to Reuters, AP, X/The Nobel Prize)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/giai-nobel-hoa-hoc-2024-cho-ba-nha-khoa-hoc-voi-cong-trinh-nghien-cuu-ve-protein-post315992.html
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