October 9, 2024
2 minimum read
In 2024, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for breaking the secret code of proteins.
Three scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a way to predict the shape of proteins, which is critical to understanding their function, and for creating entirely new proteins that can clean up the environment and block viruses. was awarded
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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists who discovered how proteins, the building blocks of life and the dynamos that make cells function, work. Protein builds muscles and the brain, helps the heart beat on time, filters out toxins, and many other important functions.
Half of the Nobel Prize went to Google DeepMind researchers Demis Hassabis and John Jumper in London for the development of AlphaFold2, an artificial intelligence program that can predict the shape and structure of protein molecules from chemical building blocks called amino acids. was jointly given to. These predictions are critical because the shape of a protein determines its function.
The other half of the award went to David Baker, a structural biologist at the University of Washington who figured out how to design completely new proteins, molecules never seen in nature. Some of these man-made proteins act as tiny sensors, while others may block the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Mr. Baker will receive 50% of the prize money, or 11 million Swedish kronor, or about $1 million. Hassabis and Jumper will get the remaining 50 percent.
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Proteins are such fundamental workhorses in biology that the ability to design artificial proteins is “absolutely amazing,” Nobel Committee for Chemistry member Johan Oqvist said at a press conference after the announcement. said. Baker, who woke up to a phone call from Sweden, said she was “very excited and very honored” to receive the award and that she was “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Such researchers include Christian Anfinsen, an American scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972 for discovering that the shape of proteins is almost completely determined by the sequence of amino acids. (Baker also said that when he told his wife it was the Nobel Prize committee on the other end, she got so excited and yelled that he missed some of the details of who won what.) )
Among the engineered proteins that Baker is most interested in, he says, are molecules that block the way SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, infects human cells. . He said he and his team were able to engineer these proteins to a size so small that they could be delivered in a nasal spray rather than injected into the arm as is traditional. scientific american In the 2021 article. Creating these substances, which he and his team call “mini-binders,” attracts certain amino acids and pulls others away, allowing him to understand some of the basic rules that determine the shape of proteins. It would have been impossible until other scientists deduced it. It interacts with other molecules, such as viral components.
In 2020, Baker was standing next to the stage at a scientific meeting, waiting to speak on a panel I moderated on protein design. He told me that he liked him much more. But despite all the benefits of winning a Nobel Prize, it also comes with demands on the recipient’s time. And Baker’s time in the lab will likely be limited over the next few months, at least until after the December awards ceremony in Stockholm.
