American scientists David Baker and John Jumper and British scientist Demis Hassabis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for their work on predicting the structure of proteins using artificial intelligence.
"One of the discoveries being recognised this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences," the academy said in a statement.
Baker was given half the award "for computational protein design", while Hassabis and Jumper shared the other half "for protein structure prediction," the award-giving body said, according to AFP.
The prize, widely regarded as among the most prestigious in the scientific world, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth $1.1 million.
The third award to be handed out every year, the chemistry prize follows those for medicine and physics announced earlier this week.
The Nobel prizes were established in the will of dynamite inventor and wealthy businessman Alfred Nobel and are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
First handed out in 1901, 15 years after Nobel's death, it is awarded for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. Recipients in each category share the prize sum that has been adjusted over the years, Reuters reported.
The economics prize is a later addition funded by the Swedish central bank.
Chemistry, close to Nobel's heart and the discipline most applicable to his own work as an inventor, may not always be the most headline-grabbing of the prizes, but past recipients include scientific greats such as radioactivity pioneers Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie.
Last year's chemistry award went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov for their discovery of tiny clusters of atoms known as quantum dots, widely used today to create colours in flat screens, light emitting diode (LED) lamps and devices that help surgeons see blood vessels in tumours.
Alongside the cash prize, the winners will be presented a medal by the Swedish king on December 10, followed by a lavish banquet in Stockholm city hall.
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