This morning, Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs co-founder and CEO Sir Demis Hassabis and Google DeepMind director Dr. John Jumper were co-honored with the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on developing AlphaFold, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins based on their amino acid sequences. David Baker was also co-awarded for his work on computational protein design.
Before AlphaFold, predicting protein structure was a complex and time-consuming process.
AlphaFold predictions, made available for free via AlphaFold protein structure databasehave given over 2 million scientists and researchers from 190 countries a powerful tool to make new discoveries. The AlphaFold 2 The paper, published in 2021, remains one of the most cited papers of all time.
AlphaFold's contributions to science have been widely praised, and its accolades include: Award named after Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research 2023, 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Canada Gairdner International Prize 2023, Clarivate 2024 Citation Winner reward and Keio Medical Science Prize 2024.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has long shown incredible potential for use in scientific research, and AlphaFold was a proof of concept. As more scientists leverage AI for everything from data collection, to experimental simulation, drug design, modeling complexity, discovering novel solutions to existing problems, and leveraging existing knowledge, we will continue to see fundamental scientific breakthroughs in the years to come.
In a statement released after receiving the news, Demis Hassabis said:
“Receiving the Nobel Prize is an honor of a lifetime. Thank you to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, John Jumper and the AlphaFold team, the broader DeepMind and Google teams, and all my past and present collaborators who made this moment possible. I have dedicated my career to the advancement of artificial intelligence for its unparalleled potential to improve the lives of billions of people. AlphaFold has already been used by over two million researchers to support critical work, from enzyme design to drug discovery. And we hope that “We will look back on AlphaFold as the first evidence of the incredible potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery.”
After receiving the news of winning the Nobel Prize, John Jumper released the following statement:
“We thank the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for this extraordinary honor. We are honored to be recognized for fulfilling the long promise of computational biology to help us understand the world of proteins and inform the incredible work of experimental biologists. This is key evidence that artificial intelligence will accelerate science and ultimately help understand diseases and develop treatments. This is the work of the exceptional team at Google DeepMind, and this award recognizes their incredible work.”
Computational biology has long held great promise for generating actionable insights that can be used in real-world experiments. AlphaFold has delivered on that promise. Before us is a universe full of new insights and scientific discoveries made possible by using artificial intelligence as a scientific tool. I thank my colleagues over the years for making this moment of recognition possible, as well as the many moments of discovery that lie ahead.”
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