This post originally appeared on the Google DeepMind Blog.
This morning, Co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs Sir Demis Hassabis, and Google DeepMind Director Dr. John Jumper were co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing AlphaFold, a groundbreaking AI system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. David Baker was also co-awarded for his work on computational protein design.
Before AlphaFold, predicting the structure of a protein was a complex and time-consuming process.
AlphaFold’s predictions, made freely available through the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, have given more than 2 million scientists and researchers from 190 countries a powerful tool for making new discoveries. The AlphaFold 2 paper, published in 2021, remains one of the most-cited publications of all time.
AlphaFold’s contributions to science have been widely praised, and among its recognitions are the 2023 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the 2023 Canada Gairdner International Award, the 2024 Clarivate Citation Laureate award, and the 2024 Keio Medical Science Prize Award.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has long shown incredible potential for use in scientific research, and AlphaFold was proof-of-concept. As more scientists adopt AI for use in everything from building data, to simulating experiments, drug design, modelling complexity, discovering novel solutions for extant problems, and building upon existing knowledge, we will continue to see foundational scientific breakthroughs in the years ahead.