Nobel chemistry prize 2024 goes to trio of protein pioneers

The Manila Times

Nobel chemistry prize 2024 goes to trio of protein pioneers  US Scientists David Baker and John Jumper and Britain's Demis Hassabis won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the award-giving body said on Wednesday, October 9, for their work on understanding the structure of proteins.  Half the prize was awarded to Baker "for computational protein design" while the other half was shared by Hassabis and Jumper "for protein structure prediction," said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which makes the award.  Baker is a professor at the University of Washington, in Seattle, while Hassabis is CEO of Google DeepMind, the AI research subsidiary of Google GOOGL.O, where Jumper also works as senior research scientist.  Hassabis and Jumper utilized artificial intelligence to predict the structure of almost all known proteins, while Baker learned how to master life's building blocks and create entirely new proteins, the award-giving body said.  The prize, widely regarded as among the most prestigious in the scientific world, is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million)  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews  #nobelprize  #nobelchemistryprize  #protein

Transcript

00:00The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has today decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize

00:07in Chemistry with one half to David Baker, University of Washington, USA, for computational

00:15protein design, and the other half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jamper, Google

00:24DeepMind United Kingdom, for protein structure prediction.

00:34So I would just leave you with a message that in order to understand how proteins work,

00:41you need to know what they look like.

00:46Good morning and please accept our warmest congratulations to receiving the Nobel Prize

00:50in Chemistry.

00:53Thank you very, very much.

00:54I'm deeply honoured.

00:55I must ask, how do you feel right now?

01:00Very excited and very honoured.

01:02And I'm really excited about, I think, all the ways in which protein design can now make

01:07the world a better place in health, medicine, and really outside in technology and sustainability.

01:14Well I was sleeping when the phone rang and I answered the phone and I heard the announcement

01:23and then my wife began streaming very loudly, so I couldn't really hear very well.

01:28We have known for over 50 years that all the information is in this pearl of strings.

01:34The floppy spaghetti knows what to do, but scientists, we don't understand that.

01:39And this is what's been solved today.

01:40You know, today's prize is awarded to the understanding, now you can take a sequence

01:46of amino acids, in principle do Google search, and out comes the structure of the protein.

01:51You can also see it as the other problem, you start with the shape, I want to have

01:55this shape, what sequence should I make in terms of amino acids?

02:00And that's what half the prize is awarded for protein design, that we can make new proteins

02:05that don't exist in nature.

02:07Proteins do all the functions that are important for life, and also they cause all the troubles

02:14when we have diseases, so in order to understand what proteins do, just basic understanding

02:20of life in different organisms, evolution of life, and also coming to understand diseases

02:26and why things go wrong, then we need to know the shape of the proteins.

02:30We need to know, many times we find a gene that is mutated and it causes a disease, then

02:34we need to know what was that gene, that protein supposed to do?

02:38With form and the shape of the protein, we can figure that out.

02:42It will bring us closer to helping people in the end, making benefits for humans.

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