The Oscars of Science
The 2024 Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry are not only celebrated in Stockholm. Our company uses their ground-breaking work every day to advance healthcare and improve patients' lives.
And the 2024 Nobel Prize goes to...
The announcement of the prestigious Nobel Prize winners is always anticipated with excitement in the scientific community. All awardees of “the Oscars of Science” contribute to breakthroughs in their respective field. However, it is not always straightforward to immediately grasp the practical use for their research work. This year, both the physics and chemistry winners are having a huge impact on the work conducted at Boehringer Ingelheim.
In chemistry, this year’s focus was on proteins, the building blocks of life. Winners Demis Hassabis and John Jumper (Google DeepMind) have utilized artificial intelligence to successfully predict protein structures. David Baker (University of Washington) has established computational protein design used to create entirely new proteins.
In physics, it was all about AI. John Hopfield (Princeton University) created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data. Geoffrey Hinton (University of Toronto) invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data.
From Board games to protein design and prediction — an unexpected journey
Famous scientist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman said: "What I cannot create, I do not understand." The power of solving protein 3D structures allow us to understand how proteins look like and potentially allow to develop new therapies for patients. Beyond obtaining an accurate image from a known protein sequence, David Baker’s work opened a new can of possibilities. His work on computational protein design questions: which amino acid sequence would fold into a certain 3D structure that could be tailored to a specific function. For instance, this allows to (re)design or repurpose therapeutic proteins, which can be applied to vaccines or drug delivery systems. The impact of his work goes beyond applications in the bench, as it could also lead to the creation of proteins that can break down pollutants and plastics.
David’s work was mostly based in 3D structures obtained experimentally. An important breakthrough came in 2020 with the release of AlphaFold2 (AF2) by Google DeepMind. AF2 can predict protein structures with high confidence. The impact of this tool has been enormous: before AlphaFold, about 17% of the 20,000 proteins in the human body had an experimentally determined structure, but now the world has access to around 98% of the human proteome. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have literally changed the game with AF2. Because the initial focus of it wasn't on proteins.
Christofer Tautermann, Director of Computational Chemistry in Medicinal Chemistry, explains: "Demis was an expert on board games and neuroscientists. He and his team used AI to learn board games. With their Alpha-Go software, they've done the impossible — they've won against professional players in the game, "Go." Now they use their tremendous expertise to play on the protein field, which I'm very happy about."
Our researchers in medical chemistry have welcomed the work of Demis Hassabis and John Jumper with open arms. AF2 is used for structure-based drug design.
Herbert Nar, Highly Distinguished Research Fellow, explains:
“We were immediately hooked by this technology. The second it was available we used it in-house to prioritize targets for purification or to predict protein-protein interactions involved in disease. Honestly, this is quite rare that a Noble price impacts our work that quickly.”
Artificial intelligence - a new hope
In physics, the laureates Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield are equally celebrated by our IT colleagues.
Nikhil Podduturi, head of the BI X Data Science Chapter, explains: " Nikhil Podduturi, Head of BI X Data Science Chapter, explains: “What fascinates me about their work is how they’ve turned complex theories into practical tools that are revolutionizing many industries, including our own. Their contributions to AI and neural networks are crucial in augmenting our intelligence in understanding diseases, designing drugs, running effective trials, and reaching the right patients.”
The groundbreaking work of the 2024 Nobel Physics laureates is having a profound impact on the fields of drug discovery and development. Their research has laid the foundation for innovative technologies that are accelerating the development of new treatments.
One such technology is Genomic Lens, a joint venture between BI X and Digital IU. This product supports the scientists identifying disease mechanisms within human DNA. By analyzing vast amounts of data, Genomic Lens can uncover novel targets for drug development, potentially leading to more effective and personalized therapies.
In the realm of oncology, the applications of AI and neural networks are even more promising in developing innovative approaches to cancer treatment. For instance, the PLLM collaboration has enabled us to create a cutting-edge research tool that has already demonstrated its effectiveness to accelerate the discovery of novel T cell Engager candidates. As a result, we are able to earlier advance discovery projects into the cancer research portfolio.
By harnessing the power of AI and leveraging the insights gained from the Nobel laureates' work, we are closer than ever to developing groundbreaking therapies that will transform the lives of patients worldwide. And their impact is not limited to R&D and no longer exclusive to scientists and experts. AI is meanwhile applied to all parts of our value chain and tools like Copilot and iQNow can empower everyone in the organization. With our internal Apollo platform, we can even build custom AI solutions within Boehringer Ingelheim.