Nobel Prize In ChemistryPhoto: X/@NobelPrize Nobel Prize In ChemistryPhoto: X/@NobelPrize 
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to David Baker “for computational protein design” and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction.”
Proteins generally consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks and David Baker in 2003 succeeded in using these blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein, according to a press release.
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"Since then, his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors," the release said.
The second Nobel Prize-winning discovery pertains to the prediction of protein structures, the release said.
In proteins, amino acids are linked together in long strings that fold up to make a three-dimensional structure, which is decisive for the protein’s function, the release said, adding that since the 1970s, researchers had tried to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences, but this was notoriously difficult.
Four years ago, there was a breakthrough. Courtesy, Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper.
Work that once took years now takes just a few minutes thanks to this year’s chemistry laureates.2024 #NobelPrize laureates Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have used their AI model AlphaFold2 to calculate the structure of all human proteins. They also predicted the structure of… pic.twitter.com/3xAKhbhYUv
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 9, 2024In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper presented an AI [Artificial Intelligence] model called AlphaFold2 which helped them predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified, the release said.
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"Since their breakthrough, AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries. Among a myriad of scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic," it added.
"Life could not exist without proteins. That we can now predict protein structures and design our own proteins confers the greatest benefit to humankind," it said.
As per the official website of Nobel Prizelodigame, the prize amount of 11 million Swedish kronor will be divided among the winners, with one half to David Baker and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper.