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The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 9, 2024

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumper. David Baker was recognized for his work in computational protein design, while Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were honored for their contributions to protein structure prediction using artificial intelligence¹,².

These groundbreaking achievements have significant implications for understanding and manipulating proteins, which are essential for numerous biological processes and applications¹,². Since peptides are simply proteins containing fewer amino acids, the work has contributed to the field of peptide chemistry and has significant implications for peptides due to the advancements in protein structure prediction and computational protein design.

  • Protein Structure Prediction: Demis Hassabis and John Jumper’s work on using the AI model called AlphaFold2 to predict protein structures allows scientists to understand the precise 3D shapes of peptides. This is crucial because the function of peptides is highly dependent upon their structure.
  • Computational Protein Design: David Baker’s achievements in designing new proteins from scratch can be applied to creating novel peptides with specific functions. This could lead to the development of new therapeutic peptides, which are used in treatments for various diseases.

The AlphaFold2 AI model has been trained on all the known amino acid sequences and determined protein structures3.  From these innovations, AI models can now yield specific details about head-to-tail circles and disulfide bridges, achieving superior predictive performance compared to existing methods4. These advancements enable more precise manipulation and design of peptides, including macrocyclic peptides4, and can predict peptide-protein interactions5.  These breakthroughs are significant for drug discovery, as cyclic peptides are promising therapeutic candidates due to their high binding affinity, selectivity, and specificity4.

Congratulations to the award winners this year!

References

  1. Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 – NobelPrize.org. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/press-release/
  2. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 – Popular information – NobelPrize.org. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/popular-information/
  3. Illustration: How does AlphaFold2 work? (pdf)
  4. Chenhao Zhang, et al. HighFold: accurately predicting structures of cyclic peptides and complexes with head-to-tail and disulfide bridge constraints, Briefings in Bioinformatics, Volume 25, Issue 3, May 2024, bbae215, Retrieved from: https://academic.oup.com/bib/article/25/3/bbae215/7665139
  5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-023-01381-z

Further reading