2024 Nobel Chemistry Prize to David Baker, Demis Hassabis & John Jumper

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Stockholm, has chosen David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumper for the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. American David Baker was honoured for his work on ‘computational protein design’. British Demis Hassabi and American John M. Jumper were honoured for their work in predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences.

The cash prize of 11 million kroner will be shared among the three winners. Half of the prize will go to David Baker, and the other half will be equally shared between Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper. The award will be conferred to them in a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on 10 December 2024. 

The Nobel Prize is awarded by the Nobel Foundation, which gives prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. The Nobel Foundation was set up as per the will of the Philanthropist and inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel.

Work of the Three Nobel Prize-Winning Scientists 

Proteins, made of amino acids, are the building blocks of life. They control and drive all chemical reactions in human beings and function as hormones, antibodies, and signal substances. Proteins normally consist of 20 different types of amino acids called life-building blocks.

In 2013, David Baker succeeded in designing a new type of protein that was unlike any other protein.

In 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an AI (artificial intelligence )model called AlphaFold2, which predicts the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins known to humans.

Their work has many scientific applications, such as a better understanding of antibiotic resistance and the creation of images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.

Indian/Indian origin scientists to win Chemistry Nobel Prize 

• The Indian-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who holds dual nationality of Britain and the United States, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009. 

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was instituted by the Nobel Foundation in 1900 and was first awarded in 1901.

• The first person to receive the prize was Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff of the Netherlands in 1901. 
• The Chemistry Nobel Prize has been awarded twice to two persons. Frederick Sanger of England was awarded the prize in 1958 and 1980, and Barry Sharpless of the United States of America was awarded it in 2001 and 2022
• Madame Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for discovering polonium and radium.

For details and history of the Nobel prize, read Nobel Foundation increases the amount for Nobel Prize from 2024