Three scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on proteins

Scientists David Baker, John Jumper and Demis Hassabis have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the structure of proteins.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced one half of the prize to Baker “for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to Hassabis and Jumper “for protein structure prediction”.

Baker works at the University of Washington in Seattle, in the United States, while Hassabis and Jumper both work at Google Deepmind in London.

Last year’s chemistry award went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov for their discovery of tiny clusters of atoms known as quantum dots, widely used today to create colours in flat screens, light emitting diode (LED) lamps and devices that help surgeons see blood vessels in tumours.

The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1m) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.