On October 9, 2024 (Vietnam time), Dr. Demis Hassabis (United Kingdom) and Dr. John Jumper (USA) – co-Laureates of the 2022 VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields  – were honored with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 for developing an AI model that predicts protein structures. 

Sharing the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with them is Professor David Baker (USA) for his work on computational protein design.

According to the press release published on the Nobel Prize’s website, Dr. Hassabis and Dr. Jumper presented an AI model called AlphaFold2 in 2020. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified. Since their breakthrough, AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million people from 190 countries. Among a myriad of scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and create images of enzymes that can decompose plastic.

Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said that Dr. Hassabis and Dr. Jumper’s AlphaFold2 has fulfilled a 50-year-old dream in the field.

Previously, in 2022, when awarding the VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields to these two scientists, the VinFuture Prize Council assessed that their pioneering work on AlphaFold 2, an artificial intelligence program that has revolutionized the modeling of protein structures, accelerating advances in biomedicine, health, and agriculture.

AlphaFold 2 has reduced what previously took years of work to mere hours, accelerating progress on some of the most important problems in life. The team made openly available a database of the structures of over 200 million proteins, helping thousands of scientists tackle challenges across the world.

VinFuture Prize laureates have consistently demonstrated their exceptional contributions to humanity, as evidenced by their ongoing achievements and recognition by prestigious international awards. Last year, Dr. Katalin Karikó and Prof. Drew Weissman, the 2021 VinFuture Prize Laureates, were also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking research on nucleoside modifications, which has played an instrumental role in the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

The increasing recognition of VinFuture Prize Laureates in prestigious international awards has affirmed the effectiveness of the VinFuture Prize’s selection process and demonstrated the stature and vision of the VinFuture prize councils. This has solidified VinFuture’s significant role in identifying and fostering groundbreaking research, elevating Vietnam’s global scientific standing.