- The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker for computational protein design and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for protein structure prediction.
- The prize honours groundbreaking work in understanding the link between amino acid sequences and protein structures.
- Computational Protein Design:
- David Baker led a team that in 2003 designed new proteins using computational methods.
- These methods have evolved to create “designer” proteins for specific applications.
- His team’s work is described as enabling the construction of almost any type of protein.
- AlphaFold2 for Prediction of Protein Structure:
- Hassabis and Jumper developed AlphaFold 2, an AI model capable of predicting the structure of millions of proteins, surpassing the 1.7 lakh proteins previously mapped by human scientists.
- Their work is noted for breaking new ground in 2020 by using AI to predict complex protein structures.
- AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries.
Dig Deeper: Read about the basic functions of Protein in Human cells and Body.
