Google DeepMind scientists and a creator of new proteins are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists, including two lead researchers from Google DeepMind.

Here's What We Know

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and DeepMind Senior Scientist John Jumper received the award for creating the AlphaFold2 artificial intelligence model that predicts the structure of human proteins. The model has been able to predict the structure of almost all 200 million known proteins, which opens up huge opportunities for science.

The third laureate, David Baker, was recognised for his achievements in computational protein design. In 2003, he created a new protein unlike any previously known and has since developed many new proteins for pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and sensors.

Heiner Linke, chairman of the Nobel Committee in Chemistry, said that these discoveries make it possible to build unique proteins and predict their structures from amino acid sequences, which has been a dream of scientists for 50 years. These advances greatly accelerate scientific research, which previously took years, but can now be done in minutes.

Source: Nobel Prize