David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry – announced on Wednesday at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
David Baker succeeded in the previously thought impossible feat of creating completely new types of proteins. And Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an AI model capable of predicting the structure of proteins. All of these have enormous potential.
One of the discoveries receiving recognition this year is related to the structure of proteins. The other is about the fulfillment of a 50-year-old dream: predicting the structure of proteins based on their amino acid sequences. Both discoveries open up enormous possibilities, said Heiner Linke, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
The diversity of life testifies to the amazing ability of proteins as chemical tools. Proteins control and operate the chemical reactions that together form the basis of life. Proteins also function as hormones, signaling substances, antibodies and as building blocks of various tissues. They usually consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be called the building blocks of life. In 2003, David Baker managed to use these building blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein. Since then, his research group has created, among other things, proteins that can be used as drugs, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.
The second discovery is related to the prediction of protein structures. In proteins, the amino acids are connected in long strands, which fold together to form a three-dimensional structure, which is crucial for the function of the protein. Since the 1970s, researchers have tried to predict the structure of proteins from amino acid sequences, but this has been notoriously difficult. But four years ago there was a startling breakthrough.
In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper introduced an AI model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they were able to predict the structure of practically all of the 200 million proteins identified by the researchers. The model has already been used by more than two million people from 190 countries. In addition to countless scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and take pictures of the enzymes that break down plastic.
“Life could not exist without proteins. The biggest advantage for humanity is that we can now predict the structure of proteins and design our own proteins,” concludes the information from the Royal Swedish Academy.
Source: nepszava.hu
