Summary
“Explore how David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their advances in computer-assisted protein design.”
Video: How AI Cracked the Protein Folding Code and Won a Nobel Prize
This 22min19 video provides a very good explanation of the origins of the research in protein structure, from 1957 to this year Nobel prize in Chemistry. Details on the inner working process of AlphaFold2 and RosettaFold are explained with language most people can understand. In addition, a short review of the methods of X-ray crystallography and Cryo-Electron microscopy are briefly explained.
The Quanta Magazine companion article How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It offers additional information as well as historical photographs.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
01:03 – What is a protein?
02:31 – Levinthal Paradox
02:53 – The Protein Folding Problem – how proteins fold to function
03:48 – John Kendrew / using X-ray crystallography to determine structure
05:02 – The Protein Data Bank (PDB)
05:45 – Christian Anfinsen’s Nobel winning research
06:28 – Chemical structure of amino acids
07:17 – Secondary and tertiary folding structures
07:59 – Quaternary folding structure
08:16 – The beginnings of computational biology
09:09 – Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP) challenge
10:26 – Baker lab develops RoseTTA
11:31 – Google DeepMind introduces deep learning with AlphaGo
12:00 – DeepMind develops AlphaFold 1 to enter CASP 13
13:32 – AlphaFold 2 explained
15:28 – DeepMind wins CASP 14 and solves the protein folding problem
17:10 – An AI revolution in biological research
17:45 – How the Baker lab designs new proteins
19:53 – New AI tools predict cellular interactions, AlphaFold 3 and RoseTTAFold All-Atom
21:23 – David Baker, John Jumper, and Demis Hassabis win the Nobel Prize
00:00 – Introduction
01:03 – What is a protein?
02:31 – Levinthal Paradox
02:53 – The Protein Folding Problem – how proteins fold to function
03:48 – John Kendrew / using X-ray crystallography to determine structure
05:02 – The Protein Data Bank (PDB)
05:45 – Christian Anfinsen’s Nobel winning research
06:28 – Chemical structure of amino acids
07:17 – Secondary and tertiary folding structures
07:59 – Quaternary folding structure
08:16 – The beginnings of computational biology
09:09 – Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP) challenge
10:26 – Baker lab develops RoseTTA
11:31 – Google DeepMind introduces deep learning with AlphaGo
12:00 – DeepMind develops AlphaFold 1 to enter CASP 13
13:32 – AlphaFold 2 explained
15:28 – DeepMind wins CASP 14 and solves the protein folding problem
17:10 – An AI revolution in biological research
17:45 – How the Baker lab designs new proteins
19:53 – New AI tools predict cellular interactions, AlphaFold 3 and RoseTTAFold All-Atom
21:23 – David Baker, John Jumper, and Demis Hassabis win the Nobel Prize
Top Image Credits: Created by Microsoft Copilot.
Prompts:
– Left: “*Make a simple sketch picture for depicting protein structure prediction.*”
-Center: “*Make a simple sketch symbolizing the Nobel Prize institution for the prize of chemistry.*”
-Right: Modify left sketch with: “*Make it colorful and reflecting modern computational methods.*”
Prompts:
– Left: “*Make a simple sketch picture for depicting protein structure prediction.*”
-Center: “*Make a simple sketch symbolizing the Nobel Prize institution for the prize of chemistry.*”
-Right: Modify left sketch with: “*Make it colorful and reflecting modern computational methods.*”