Dubai Telegraph - Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction

EUR -
AED 3.865039
AFN 71.961868
ALL 97.885367
AMD 409.705534
ANG 1.898038
AOA 960.733931
ARS 1055.061215
AUD 1.613881
AWG 1.894109
AZN 1.787029
BAM 1.951539
BBD 2.126437
BDT 125.855234
BGN 1.956342
BHD 0.396578
BIF 3110.579445
BMD 1.052283
BND 1.414399
BOB 7.293078
BRL 6.086683
BSD 1.053191
BTN 88.848028
BWP 14.387453
BYN 3.446543
BYR 20624.740218
BZD 2.122845
CAD 1.469502
CDF 3014.78969
CHF 0.929776
CLF 0.037101
CLP 1023.776253
CNY 7.619996
CNH 7.625593
COP 4626.455438
CRC 534.824751
CUC 1.052283
CUP 27.885491
CVE 110.024795
CZK 25.350861
DJF 187.538784
DKK 7.458788
DOP 63.520417
DZD 140.573397
EGP 52.274979
ERN 15.78424
ETB 131.306162
FJD 2.388363
FKP 0.830585
GBP 0.832524
GEL 2.883571
GGP 0.830585
GHS 16.7185
GIP 0.830585
GMD 74.71233
GNF 9078.051459
GTQ 8.13025
GYD 220.338958
HKD 8.189863
HNL 26.613518
HRK 7.506205
HTG 138.346648
HUF 411.186809
IDR 16734.714279
ILS 3.929639
IMP 0.830585
INR 88.911049
IQD 1379.588093
IRR 44293.214291
ISK 145.520299
JEP 0.830585
JMD 166.933965
JOD 0.746386
JPY 162.676061
KES 136.007134
KGS 91.02957
KHR 4249.68174
KMF 491.94202
KPW 947.053999
KRW 1471.222726
KWD 0.323672
KYD 0.877684
KZT 523.167824
LAK 23125.51255
LBP 94319.785398
LKR 306.411046
LRD 190.622024
LSL 19.101997
LTL 3.107117
LVL 0.636515
LYD 5.138732
MAD 10.521031
MDL 19.167154
MGA 4930.189594
MKD 61.546561
MMK 3417.773046
MNT 3575.656436
MOP 8.443666
MRU 41.866002
MUR 48.839087
MVR 16.268296
MWK 1826.195708
MXN 21.380416
MYR 4.698412
MZN 67.293799
NAD 19.101997
NGN 1768.455747
NIO 38.755022
NOK 11.613586
NPR 142.154623
NZD 1.792324
OMR 0.40513
PAB 1.053101
PEN 3.996674
PGK 4.239684
PHP 62.126243
PKR 292.773138
PLN 4.342422
PYG 8247.914831
QAR 3.840515
RON 4.977085
RSD 117.020141
RUB 106.281009
RWF 1452.315514
SAR 3.95054
SBD 8.79238
SCR 14.332083
SDG 632.944958
SEK 11.610939
SGD 1.413951
SHP 0.830585
SLE 23.75528
SLL 22065.84631
SOS 601.88026
SRD 37.282669
STD 21780.126598
SVC 9.214882
SYP 2643.891613
SZL 19.091139
THB 36.458458
TJS 11.216013
TMT 3.682989
TND 3.324243
TOP 2.464553
TRY 36.27081
TTD 7.130433
TWD 34.270209
TZS 2791.031424
UAH 43.426878
UGX 3886.514989
USD 1.052283
UYU 45.021709
UZS 13526.469111
VES 48.861031
VND 26751.65603
VUV 124.929112
WST 2.937543
XAF 654.521833
XAG 0.033884
XAU 0.000395
XCD 2.843846
XDR 0.801343
XOF 654.521833
XPF 119.331742
YER 262.991742
ZAR 19.064031
ZMK 9471.810193
ZMW 29.146091
ZWL 338.834589
  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction / Photo: Jonathan NACKSTRAND - AFP

Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction

Americans David Baker and John Jumper, together with Briton Demis Hassabis, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for work revealing the secrets of proteins through computing and artificial intelligence.

Text size:

The three were honoured for cracking the code of the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life, with the jury hailing their work as holding "enormous potential" in a range of fields.

Biochemist Baker, 62, was given half the award "for computational protein design", while Hassabis and Jumper shared the other half "for protein structure prediction," the Nobel committee said.

"David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins," it said in a statement.

Hassabis and Jumper developed an AI model "to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins' complex structures," the jury said of the duo who head up AI research lab Google DeepMind.

Hassabis, 48, and Jumper, who was born in 1985, were among those speculated to be contenders for this year's Nobel for their work on the AI-model Alphafold.

They received the prestigious Lasker Award in 2023.

- Scientific dream -

The AI tool is used to predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins based on their amino acid sequence, and the Alphafold database now contains the predicted structure of over 200 million proteins.

The jury said that the laureates' discoveries "hold enormous potential."

"Proteins are the molecules that enable life. Proteins are building blocks that form bones, skin, hair and tissue," Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, told a press conference.

"To understand how life works, we first need to understand the shape of proteins," he said, and added that being able to predict their structure from their amino acid building blocks had "long been a dream."

Baker told reporters Wednesday was a turning out to be "quite a unique, special day" for him.

"I was sleeping when the phone rang, and I answered the phone and I heard the announcement," Baker said via phone link after the prize was announced in Stockholm.

The researcher said he was really excited about "all the ways in which protein design can now make the world a better place," while listing areas such as health, medicine as well as technology and sustainability.

Tuesday's physics prize honoured key breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), going to American John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI.

Last year, the chemistry prize went to French-born Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus of the United States and Russian-born Alexei Ekimov for developing tiny "quantum dots" used to illuminate TVs and lamps.

Awarded since 1901, the Nobel Prizes honour those who have, in the words of prize creator and scientist Alfred Nobel, "conferred the greatest benefit on humankind".

On Monday, the Medicine Prize was awarded to American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated.

Wednesday's chemistry prize will be followed by the highly watched literature and peace prizes to be announced on Thursday and Friday respectively.

The economics prize wraps up the 2024 Nobel season on October 14.

The winners will receive their prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million cheque, from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his will.

F.Saeed--DT