Post 53: Awards won by AlphaFold 🏆

Since the release of AlphaFold2, a tsunami of artificial intelligence in biology has been unleashed. Many people are behind this, but some of the most prominent are:

• David Baker (director of the Institute of Protein Design)
• Demis Hassabis (CEO of Google DeepMind)
• John Jumper (director of the AlphaFold2 project).

For making AlphaFold2 and its derivatives a reality, these three have received numerous awards*, and I (and many others) bet that they will soon receive the first Nobel Prize directly related to work done with artificial intelligence (i.e., AlphaFold2/RoseTTaFold).

Disclaimer: David is already a legend in the world of protein design; AI is just the cherry on top of the cake. On the other hand, Demis Hassabis is one of the people I admire most intellectually.
Here’s a nice interview with David Baker:

List of (some) awards related to AlphaFold/RoseTTaFold:

1. 2023 Albert Lasker Award
2. 2023 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine
3. 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
4. 2023 Gairdner International Award
5. 2022 The VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators

References:

• A New Precedent—A.I. Gets the “American Nobel” Prize in Medicine

Addendum:
On October 9, 2024, it was officially canonized!!!

Personally, I feel a great admiration for David Baker for all that he has contributed to science. And now I feel at peace.

Here’s the official statement with a very nice image.

And even the proteins are celebrating this great award!