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Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

nobelprize.org

211–220 of 343 posts

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#211

Physics prize one goes to AI, chemistry too. What next? Nobel in Literature goes to ChatGPT? Jokes aside, I think the chemistry prize seems to make a bit more sense to me than physics one.

I think it is definitely possible for ChatGPT to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.. maybe not this version or the next but eventually -- especially if it is by proxy aka as is the premise in "The Wife" (a good book/movie btw).

There's already precedent for anonymous creators, aka Banksy.

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they can. In 1901, science was not nearly as collaborative as it is today. Especially considering the need for a Nobel Prize to be experimental and the fact that most major labs today _need_ dozens of people.

He asked _can_ not _should_: what is the legal mechanism for doing so? Personally I don't doubt there is one but I don't think you know it off the top of your head, so I don't see it as fair to disparage OP for not knowing either.

Well, it seems like amendments have been made before. [0] > Before the board ... votes on a proposal to amend the statutes ... with the first paragraph, the prize-awarding bodies shall examine the proposal.

https://www.nobelprize.org/organization/special-regulations-...

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they can. In 1901, science was not nearly as collaborative as it is today. Especially considering the need for a Nobel Prize to be experimental and the fact that most major labs today _need_ dozens of people.

That…has nothing to do with my question. It was a procedural and legal question, not an abstract moral one.

Well, it seems like amendments have been made before. [0] > Before the board ... votes on a proposal to amend the statutes ... with the first paragraph, the prize-awarding bodies shall examine the proposal.

https://www.nobelprize.org/organization/special-regulations-...

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#216
post #117

I think I disagree with most of the comments here stating it’s premature to give the Nobel to AlphaFold. I’m in biotech academia and it has changed things already. Yes the protein folding problem isn’t “solved” but no problem in biology ever is. Comparing to previous bio/chem Nobel winners like Crispr, touch receptors, quantum dots, click chemistry, I do think AlphaFold already has reached sufficient level of impact.

I agree. For those not in biotech, protein folding has been the holy grail for a long time, and AlphaFold represents a huge leap forward. Not unlike trying to find a way to reduce NP to P in CS. A leap forward there would be huge, even if it came short of a complete solution.

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#217
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what has changed? I think people need more from a comment than blind trust.

It solidly answered the question: "Is evolutionary sequence relationship and structure data sufficient to predict a large fraction of the structures that proteins adopt". the answer, surprising few, is that the data we have indeed can be used to make general predictions (even outside of the training classes), and also surprising many, that we can do so with a minimum of evolutionary sequence data. That people are arg…

That's a bit like saying that the invention of the airplane proved that animals can fly, when birds are swooping around your head.

I mean, sure, prior to alphafold, the notion that sequence / structure relationship was "sufficient to predict" protein structure was merely a very confident theory that was used to regularly make the most reliable kind of structure predictions via homology modeling (it was also core to Rosetta, of course).

Now it is a very confident theory that is used to make a slightly larger subset of predictions via a totally different method, but still fails at the ones we don't know about. Vive la change!

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#218

Demis Hasabis has a really interesting and unusual CV for a nobel laureate [1], he started his career in AI game programming (he worked e.g. on Popoulous II, Syndicate, Theme Park for Bullfrog, and later for Lionhead Studios on Black & White) before doing a PhD in neuroscience, becoming an entrepreneur and starting DeepMind. I would say this is a refreshing and highly uncommon pick for a nobel prize, really cool to s…

I'm always interested in hearing about these people who go and get a PhD in an unrelated field to their original studies, often years after leaving university and working in an industry. Here it says Hasabis did an undergraduate degree in a computer science program, and them spent a decade working on computer games at studios, and then somehow just rocked up to a university and asked to do a PhD in neuroscience.

I feel if I tried to do that in the US- (where I got a masters degree in engineering, spent a 15 yrs as an aerospace engineer,)- tried to go back and ask to do a PhD in, say, Physics - I'd be promptly told to go fuck myself (or, fuck myself but then enroll in a new undergrad or maaaybe graduate program only after re-taking GRE's. Straight PhD? Never heard it work like that.)

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#219
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So can we expect that Sam Altman will be honored with Nobel prize 2025? After all physics prize went to AI researchers this year, and chemistry prize went to an organizational head.

He may still win literature this year.

He's up for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

https://x.com/S_OhEigeartaigh/status/1843979139948355893

Re: Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction

#220

Demis Hasabis has a really interesting and unusual CV for a nobel laureate [1], he started his career in AI game programming (he worked e.g. on Popoulous II, Syndicate, Theme Park for Bullfrog, and later for Lionhead Studios on Black & White) before doing a PhD in neuroscience, becoming an entrepreneur and starting DeepMind. I would say this is a refreshing and highly uncommon pick for a nobel prize, really cool to s…

I'm always interested in hearing about these people who go and get a PhD in an unrelated field to their original studies, often years after leaving university and working in an industry. Here it says Hasabis did an undergraduate degree in a computer science program, and them spent a decade working on computer games at studios, and then somehow just rocked up to a university and asked to do a PhD in neuroscience. I fe…

Aerospace engineering masters -> Physics PhD doesn't sound like a big leap to me. I don't think that's accurate.
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