Nobel Prize Awarded for Applying AI in Studying Proteins

stockholm - The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for their work on using artificial intelligence to decipher the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is being awarded to American David Baker and Brit Demis Hassabis and American John Jumper of DeepMind, a division of Google specializing in artificial intelligence (AI). They have developed and applied the technology to unravel the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life.

Tuesday's Nobel Prize in Physics was also awarded for the development of artificial intelligence. American John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton developed the neural networks used in machine learning, a technique employed in AI.

Proteins are essential for bodily functions: digesting food, transmitting signals within the body, repairing cells, and protecting against pathogens with antibodies. Baker and his team use artificial intelligence to design proteins that can be used as vaccines or medications.

Proteins themselves are composed of various combinations of amino acids. The precise sequence and arrangement of these amino acids determine the function of a protein. Scientists have long attempted to determine protein structures based on these sequences, which was historically very challenging, with predictions being only about 40% accurate.

At DeepMind, Hassabis and Jumper developed the AlphaFold program, which utilizes AI to predict the composition of a protein. The initial version was launched in 2018, with a successor in 2020. Since then, the accuracy of protein predictions has surged to around 90%. AlphaFold has determined the structures of nearly all 200 million known proteins in just a few years.

The laureates receive a medal and a diploma, in addition to splitting a sum of 11 million Swedish kronor, roughly 970,000 euros. Baker receives half, while Hassabis and Jumper share the other half. The funds come from the estate of Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the founder of the prizes.