This morning, Co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs Sir Demis Hassabis, and Google DeepMind Director Dr. John Jumper have been co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his or her work growing AlphaFold, a groundbreaking AI system that predicts the 3D construction of proteins from their amino acid sequences. David Baker was additionally co-awarded for his work on computational protein design.
Earlier than AlphaFold, predicting the construction of a protein was a posh and time-consuming course of.
AlphaFold’s predictions, made freely accessible by the AlphaFold Protein Construction Database, have given greater than 2 million scientists and researchers from 190 nations a robust device for making new discoveries. The AlphaFold 2 paper, revealed in 2021, stays one of many most-cited publications of all time.
AlphaFold’s contributions to science have been broadly praised, and amongst its recognitions are the 2023 Albert Lasker Primary Medical Analysis Award, the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the 2023 Canada Gairdner Worldwide Award, the 2024 Clarivate Quotation Laureate award, and the 2024 Keio Medical Science Prize Award.
Synthetic intelligence (AI) has lengthy proven unimaginable potential to be used in scientific analysis, and AlphaFold was proof-of-concept. As extra scientists undertake AI to be used in the whole lot from constructing knowledge, to simulating experiments, drug design, modelling complexity, discovering novel options for extant issues, and constructing upon present information, we are going to proceed to see foundational scientific breakthroughs within the years forward.
In an announcement launched after knowledgeable of the information, Demis Hassabis mentioned:
“Receiving the Nobel Prize is the honour of a lifetime. Thanks to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to John Jumper and the AlphaFold workforce, the broader DeepMind and Google groups, and to all my colleagues previous and current that made this second attainable. I’ve devoted my profession to advancing AI due to its unparalleled potential to enhance the lives of billions of individuals. AlphaFold has already been utilized by greater than two million researchers to advance essential work, from enzyme design to drug discovery. I hope we’ll look again on AlphaFold as the primary proof level of AI’s unimaginable potential to speed up scientific discovery.”
After receiving the information that he received the Nobel Prize, John Jumper launched the next assertion:
“Thanks to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for this extraordinary honor. We’re so honored to be acknowledged for delivering on the lengthy promise of computational biology to assist us perceive the protein world and to tell the unimaginable work of experimental biologists. It’s a key demonstration that AI will make science quicker and finally assist to grasp illness and develop therapeutics. That is the work of an distinctive workforce at Google DeepMind and this award acknowledges their wonderful work.
Computational biology has lengthy held large promise for creating sensible insights that could possibly be put to make use of in real-world experiments. AlphaFold delivered on this promise. Forward of us are a universe of recent insights and scientific discoveries made attainable by way of AI as a scientific device. Thanks to my colleagues through the years, for making attainable this second of recognition, in addition to the numerous moments of discovery that lie forward.”
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