Demis Hassabis & John Jumper awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry

This morning, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, Sir Demis Hassabis, and Google DeepMind Director Dr. John Gamper were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their efforts in developing AlphaFold, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. David Becker also received the award for his work in computational protein design.

Before AlphaFold, protein structure prediction 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 to make new discoveries. The AlphaFold 2 paper, published in 2021, remains one of the most cited publications ever.

AlphaFold’s contributions to science have received widespread acclaim, and its awards include the 2023 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the 2023 Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize, the 2023 Canada Gairdner International Prize, the 2024 Clarivate Citation Laureate, and the 2024 Keio Medical Sciences Prize.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long demonstrated amazing potential for use in scientific research, and AlphaFold was a proof of concept. As more scientists adopt AI for everything from constructing data, to simulating experiments, to designing drugs, developing complex models, discovering new solutions to existing problems, and building on existing knowledge, we will continue to see fundamental scientific breakthroughs in the years ahead.

Demis Hassabis said in a statement issued after learning of the news:

“Receiving a Nobel Prize is the honor of a lifetime. Thank you to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to John Gamper and the AlphaFold team, to the wider DeepMind and Google teams, and to all my past and present colleagues who made this moment possible. I have dedicated my career to advancing AI because of its unparalleled potential to improve the lives of billions of people. AlphaFold has already been used by more than two million researchers to advance important work, from enzyme design to drug discovery. I hope we will look to AlphaFold as the first proof of AI’s incredible potential In accelerating scientific discoveries.”

After receiving the news that he had won the Nobel Prize, John Jumper issued the following statement:

“Thank you to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for this exceptional honour. We are very honored to be recognized for fulfilling the long promise of computational biology to help us understand the world of protein and informing the amazing work of experimental biologists. It is prime evidence that AI will make science faster and ultimately help understand diseases and develop treatments. This is the work of an exceptional team at Google DeepMind and this award recognizes their amazing work.”

Computational biology has long held enormous promise for creating practical insights that can be used in real-world experiments. AlphaFold has delivered on that promise. Before us is a world of new insights and scientific discoveries made possible by the use of artificial intelligence as a scientific tool. Thank you to 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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