ARTICLE | Discovery & Translation
Baker and DeepMind Nobel: Two sides of a computational protein coin
Protein design updates its engine: The field’s shift from physical models to deep learning
October 10, 2024 12:40 AM UTC
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry points to the value of two related methodologies that pose inverse questions: protein design and protein structure prediction.
Split in halves, the prize first honors David Baker, serial entrepreneur and director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD), for his contributions to computational protein design since 2003. The second half recognizes Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of the Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) unit Google DeepMind, whose AlphaFold protein structure prediction method, unveiled in 2020, was a “quantum leap forward” for the field. ...