British computer scientist Demis Hassabis has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her “revolutionary” work on proteins, the building blocks of life.
Mr. Hassabis, 48, is the co-founder of the artificial intelligence company Google DeepMind.
Professor John Jamper, who worked with Mr Kazakh on the breakthrough, shares the prize with American professor David Baker.
Proteins are the building blocks of life and are found in every cell in the human body.
Better understanding of proteins has fueled huge breakthroughs in medicine.
Mr. Hassabis and Professor Jumper have used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of nearly every known protein and created a tool called AlphaFold2.
Called a “complete revolution” in chemistry by the committee, the tool is now used to analyze 200 million proteins worldwide.
Professor Baker designed a new protein using amino acids, opening the door to the creation of new proteins for use in drugs, vaccines and other tools.
Professor Baker told the committee shortly after the announcement that he was “very excited and very honoured”.
Asked how he cracked the code for creating proteins, he said: “I stand on the shoulders of giants.”
He said he was sleeping when the phone rang and his wife “started screaming loudly” in excitement when the news was announced.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the news at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
The winners share prize money worth SEK 11 million (£810,000). Professor Baker will receive half of the award, with the remaining half going to Mr. Kazak and Mr. Jamper.
