DeepMind scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for protein research

Two researchers who are part of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory DeepMind were deemed worthy of the award. 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. scientists Demis Hassabis And John M. Jumperthis year he shared the honor with University of Washington professor David Baker.

The duo was responsible for the development of the project. AlphaFold, a program that can “predict” the structure of a protein. In practice, this platform can determine and image the geometry of a molecule.

The technology was introduced in 2020 and relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to help find the three-dimensional structure of every protein already known to science. After the system was improved and the task completed, the company even released this data to the public for research.

The other half of the award went to Baker. In 2003 he managed to “construct” a new type of protein From the combination of amino acids in the laboratory.

The trio do not work together, but they do related work: The second-generation AlphaFold system, based on advanced machine learning, improves and accelerates this synthetic creation process.

Why is this important?

According to the official statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which organizes the award, the researchers’ contribution covers an issue important for the planet: “Life cannot exist without proteins“.

Among practical applications, the discoveries could enable more precise studies of antibiotic resistance, for example, and also enable the development of future enzymes that could break down plastic and aid sustainability projects.

Structure estimation speeds up work and reduces the visual representation of a protein from months to minuteswas previously considered one of the most time-consuming and difficult stages of research. “We need to be able to predict protein structures and create our own proteins.” provides the greatest benefit to humanity” says the organization.

In addition to the certificates and prizes, the trio will share the prize of 11 million Swedish krona, which amounts to approximately R$5.9 million in direct currency conversion.

This is the second 2024 Nobel Prize awarded to researchers on practical uses of artificial intelligence. The first was Physics, which rewarded scientists who created fundamental foundations for artificial neural networks.