https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02999-9 Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Advertisement Advertisement Nature * View all journals * Search * My Account Login * Explore content * About the journal * Publish with us Subscribe * Sign up for alerts * RSS feed 1. nature 2. news 3. article * NEWS * 22 September 2022 AlphaFold developers win US$3-million Breakthrough Prize DeepMind's system for predicting the 3D structure of proteins is among five recipients of science's most lucrative awards. * Zeeya Merali 1. Zeeya Merali View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar * Twitter * Facebook * Email You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF Portraits of Demis Hassabis and John Jumper. Demis Hassabis (left) and John Jumper (right) from DeepMind developed AlphaFold, an AI that can predict the structure of proteins.Credit: Breakthrough Prize The researchers behind the AlphaFold artificial-intelligence (AI) system have won one of this year's US$3-million Breakthrough prizes -- the most lucrative awards in science. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, both at DeepMind in London, were recognized for creating the tool that has predicted the 3D structures of almost every known protein on the planet. "Few discoveries so dramatically alter a field, so rapidly," says Mohammed AlQuraishi, a computational biologist at Columbia University in New York City. "It's really changed the practice of structural biology, both computational and experimental." The award was one of five Breakthrough prizes -- awarded for achievements in life sciences, physics and mathematics -- announced on 22 September. Award-winning AI AlphaFold was seeded from the success of DeepMind's AlphaGo. This was the AI that in 2016 beat Lee Sedol, a master of the strategy game Go, in Seoul. "That was the pinnacle of gaming AI, but that was never supposed to be an end in itself," says Hassabis. "I wanted to build AI to accelerate scientific discovery." The day after returning from Seoul, the team turned its attention to protein folding. The system created a stir in November 2020 by winning the biennial CASP contest (Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction), beating around 100 other software programs. An earlier version of AlphaFold had won in 2018, but not convincingly, forcing the team back to the drawing board. "With machine learning, it's about finding the right balance between the architecture -- the constraints imposed by the known underlying science -- and the data," says Jumper. [d41586-022] What's next for AlphaFold and the AI protein-folding revolution Since DeepMind released an open-source version of AlphaFold in July 2021^1, more than half a million researchers have used the machine-learning system, generating thousands of papers. In July this year, DeepMind released 200 million protein structures predicted from amino-acid sequences. So far, the data have been harnessed to tackle problems ranging from antibiotic resistance to crop resilience. "This is a major breakthrough, not just because they developed the algorithm, but because they made it available and provided all those structures," says Christine Orengo, a computational biologist at University College London. She adds that the achievement was made possible by a wealth of protein sequence data gathered by the global community. Hassabis says that he was "stunned" to learn he had won a Breakthrough prize, and Jumper says he "could not believe it was for real". Hassabis plans to donate some of his winnings to educational programmes aimed at increasing diversity, and also to initiatives supporting schools in rural Nepal. Sleep science and cellular systems Another life-sciences Breakthrough prize was awarded jointly to sleep scientists Masashi Yanagisawa at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and Emmanuel Mignot at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, for independently discovering that narcolepsy is caused by a deficiency of the brain chemical orexin. Both researchers are "giants of the field" who enabled the condition to be definitively diagnosed, says Birgitte Rahbek Kornum, a neurophysiologist at the University of Copenhagen. "Narcolepsy severely affects quality of life, and this allowed patients to know exactly what's wrong, instead of being told to 'get a grip and stay awake'," she says. The findings have also led to the development of drug treatments that are currently in clinical trials. [d41586-022] COVID advances win US$3-million Breakthrough prizes Yanagisawa says he is "deeply honoured" by the prize and plans to use the money to set up an endowment to fund research. "Stable support for young scientists to do exploratory work in Japan is problematic," he says, noting that his own discovery was possible only because he was free to "go on a 'fishing expedition' with no guarantee of success". A third life-sciences prize is shared by Clifford Brangwynne at Princeton University in New Jersey and Anthony Hyman at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, for discovering a mechanism by which cell contents can organize themselves by segregating into droplets. Quantum pioneers This year's Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is shared between four founders of the field of quantum information: Peter Shor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; David Deutsch at the University of Oxford, UK; Charles Bennett at IBM in Yorktown, New York; and Gilles Brassard at the University of Montreal in Quebec. Their research laid the groundwork for the development of ultra-secure communications and computers that might one day outperform standard machines at some tasks. "I was really surprised to learn I have been awarded the prize," says Shor. "There is so much that others have done." In the 1990s, Shor developed the first potentially useful quantum algorithm, which could one day enable quantum computers to speedily break large numbers down into their prime factors^2. This raises the possibility of cracking encryption codes used to secure much of today's Internet traffic, which are based on large prime numbers. "This massive result proved that quantum computers were more than just another academic curiosity," says Nikita Gourianov, a quantum physicist at the University of Oxford. The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics goes to Daniel Spielman, a mathematician at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Spielman was recognized for multiple advances, including the development of error-correcting codes to filter out noise in high-definition television broadcasts. The Breakthrough prizes were founded in 2012 by Yuri Milner, a Russian-Israeli billionaire. They are now sponsored by Milner and other Internet entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta (formerly Facebook). doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02999-9 References 1. Tunyasuvunakool, K. et al. Nature 596, 590-596 (2021). PubMed Article Google Scholar 2. Shor, P.W. SIAM Journal of Computing 26, 1484-1509 (1997). Article Google Scholar Download references Related Articles * [d41586-022] COVID advances win US$3-million Breakthrough prizes * [d41586-022] Discoverer of neural circuits for parenting wins US$3-million Breakthrough Prize * [d41586-022] Pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins $3-million Breakthrough Prize Subjects * Quantum information * Molecular biology * Mathematics and computing * Machine learning Latest on: Quantum information An elementary quantum network of entangled optical atomic clocks An elementary quantum network of entangled optical atomic clocks Article 07 SEP 22 Efficient generation of entangled multiphoton graph states from a single atom Efficient generation of entangled multiphoton graph states from a single atom Article 24 AUG 22 Quantum error correction with silicon spin qubits Quantum error correction with silicon spin qubits Article 24 AUG 22 Molecular biology CDK11 regulates pre-mRNA splicing by phosphorylation of SF3B1 CDK11 regulates pre-mRNA splicing by phosphorylation of SF3B1 Article 14 SEP 22 Glucose-driven TOR-FIE-PRC2 signalling controls plant development Glucose-driven TOR-FIE-PRC2 signalling controls plant development Article 14 SEP 22 Columnar structure of human telomeric chromatin Columnar structure of human telomeric chromatin Article 14 SEP 22 Mathematics and computing Aerial additive manufacturing with multiple autonomous robots Aerial additive manufacturing with multiple autonomous robots Article 21 SEP 22 Five ways deep learning has transformed image analysis Five ways deep learning has transformed image analysis Technology Feature 20 SEP 22 Smart software untangles gene regulation in cells Smart software untangles gene regulation in cells Technology Feature 05 SEP 22 Nature Careers Jobs * Immunology Faculty Opportunity: Denver, CO National Jewish Health (NJH), CU Anschutz Denver, CO, United States * Multiple Postdoctoral Positions of Gene Regulation, Phase separation, Bioinformatics and Cancer Biology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Chapel Hill, NC, United States * Open Rank Faculty Position Columbia University in the City of New York (CU) New York City, NY, United States * Lecturer in Discipline or Senior Lecturer in Discipline Columbia University in the City of New York (CU) New York, NY, United States You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF Related Articles * [d41586-022] COVID advances win US$3-million Breakthrough prizes * [d41586-022] Discoverer of neural circuits for parenting wins US$3-million Breakthrough Prize * [d41586-022] Pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins $3-million Breakthrough Prize Subjects * Quantum information * Molecular biology * Mathematics and computing * Machine learning Advertisement Sign up to Nature Briefing An essential round-up of science news, opinion and analysis, delivered to your inbox every weekday. Email address [ ] [ ] Yes! Sign me up to receive the daily Nature Briefing email. I agree my information will be processed in accordance with the Nature and Springer Nature Limited Privacy Policy. Sign up * Close Nature Briefing Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter -- what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Email address [ ] Sign up [ ] I agree my information will be processed in accordance with the Nature and Springer Nature Limited Privacy Policy. Close Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing Explore content * Research articles * News * Opinion * Research Analysis * Careers * Books & Culture * Podcasts * Videos * Current issue * Browse issues * Collections * Subjects * Follow us on Facebook * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe * Sign up for alerts * RSS feed About the journal * Journal Staff * About the Editors * Journal Information * Our publishing models * Editorial Values Statement * Journal Metrics * Awards * Contact * Editorial policies * History of Nature * Send a news tip Publish with us * For Authors * For Referees * Submit manuscript Search Search articles by subject, keyword or author [ ] Show results from [All journals] Search Advanced search Quick links * Explore articles by subject * Find a job * Guide to authors * Editorial policies Nature (Nature) ISSN 1476-4687 (online) ISSN 0028-0836 (print) nature.com sitemap Nature portfolio * About us * Press releases * Press office * Contact us * * * Discover content * Journals A-Z * Articles by subject * Nano * Protocol Exchange * Nature Index Publishing policies * Nature portfolio policies * Open access Author & Researcher services * Reprints & permissions * Research data * Language editing * Scientific editing * Nature Masterclasses * Nature Research Academies * Research Solutions Libraries & institutions * Librarian service & tools * Librarian portal * Open research * Recommend to library Advertising & partnerships * Advertising * Partnerships & Services * Media kits * Branded content Career development * Nature Careers * Nature Conferences * Nature events Regional websites * Nature Africa * Nature China * Nature India * Nature Italy * Nature Japan * Nature Korea * Nature Middle East Legal & Privacy * Privacy Policy * Use of cookies * Manage cookies/Do not sell my data * Legal notice * Accessibility statement * Terms & Conditions * California Privacy Statement Springer Nature (c) 2022 Springer Nature Limited