Researchers David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biology and Biomedicine category for revolutionizing the study and design of proteins through artificial intelligence and thereby promoting the development of new treatments against multiple diseases.
The winners have developed deep learning systems that make it possible to predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins with a precision and speed that was not possible until now, achieving in minutes what used to take years of experimental work in a laboratory.
“This momentous breakthrough is revolutionizing our understanding of how the amino acid sequence of proteins gives rise to uniquely ordered three-dimensional structures.”
concludes the minutes of the jury released by the Foundation.
He adds: "Scientists are now using these new methods to predict interactions between proteins, design entirely new proteins, and find new drug targets."
The award-winning tools are AlphaFold2, driven by Hassabis and Jumper (CEO and senior researcher, respectively, of Artificial Intelligence company DeepMind), and RoseTTAFold, led by Baker (Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Washington and Howard Hughes Research Fellow Medical Institute).
Both have made it possible to discover the structure of almost all documented proteins, both human, animal, plant, and even bacteria, which serves to accelerate the development of new medicines and vaccines.
"AlphaFold has already impacted biological research with great impact in a very short time," says researcher Demis Hassabis.
"We know that more than a million researchers have used the structures predicted by AlphaFold in their research, and virtually every pharmaceutical company in the world has used AlphaFold in their drug discovery programs," added the CEO of Deepmind.
"It is very difficult to handle the extraordinary complexity that is observed in a living cell, but really, I believe that with this technology we are able to capture that complexity," Jumper acknowledged in an interview shortly after learning of the jury's decision.
“Novel proteins can make for improved medicines, so there are many exciting new medical applications.
For example, it will be possible to create new vaccines or new medicines to treat cancer”, adds Baker.
In the previous edition, the honorees were Robert Langer, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, for their contributions to messenger RNA therapies and transfer technology that allows cells to produce proteins to prevent and treat diseases.
These discoveries facilitated the development of vaccines against Covid-19.
The awards, which already have fifteen editions, are endowed with a prize of 400,000 euros.
They were created by the BBVA Foundation in 2008 with the aim of recognizing high-impact contributions in various areas of science, technology, the humanities and music, especially those that significantly broaden the scope of what is known in a discipline, give rise to new fields or build bridges between different disciplinary areas.
In addition, they have international juries made up of renowned experts in each field.
The Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) also participates with the BBVA Foundation in these awards.
The State Agency is in charge of deciding a part of the members of the Technical Support Committees who are the first to evaluate the candidacies to, later, transfer the proposal of finalists to the jury.
The public body also designates the presidency of each jury and collaborates in the election of the rest of the members.
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