It took John Jumper only one year to become the Backbone of DeepMind. Seven years after graduating from his PhD program, he won the Nobel Prize and opened a new era of protein folding.

John Jumper won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the protein folding problem with AlphaFold2. He crossed over from physics to chemistry, pursued scientific innovation with perseverance, promoted the progress of life sciences with humility and dedication, and became a model of interdisciplinary research.

“I thought I only had a 10% chance of winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,” John Jumper said with a smile in a telephone interview after learning the news of his winning. His tone was full of humility and emotion, and behind this honor was the scientific revolution brought about by AlphaFold2, which completely changed the way protein structure prediction is done.

So far, more than 2 million people from 190 countries have used this tool, which has not only accelerated the development of new drugs and disease research, but also provided unprecedented support for basic scientific exploration, profoundly affecting the future development of life sciences.

At the same time, Jumper is also the youngest Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 70 years. This remarkable honor came only…