The three scientists contributed to science by creating AI protein models and innovative designs including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors, the Nobel committee said.
The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to a trio of scientists on Wednesday for their work on proteins.
Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis and DeepMind researcher John Jumper were awarded one part of the prize for developing an artificial intelligence (AI) model to predict the structures of almost all known proteins, a feat that has taken 50 years to solve.
They created a tool called AlphaFold2, which the Nobel Prize committee said is a “complete revolution” in chemistry, and the tool is now used by 200 million people worldwide.
The committee also said the tool meant that researchers could now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.
The second part of the prize was awarded to US-based Professor David Baker.
In 2003, Baker designed a new protein and since then, his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors, the Nobel committee said.
Baker said he was “very excited and very honoured,” after he found out he had won.
Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which decides on the winner, announced the prize.
Last year, the award went to three scientists for their work on quantum dots, tiny particles just a few nanometres in diameter that can release very bright coloured light and whose applications in everyday life include electronics and medical imaging.
Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize. The physics prize, meanwhile went to two pioneers in machine learning, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton.
The awards continue with the literature prize on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics will be awarded next Monday.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly €1 million) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.