AlphaFold: Grand challenge to Nobel Prize with John Jumper

Five years ago, AlphaFold 2 solved the protein structure prediction problem, unlocking new avenues of biological research and providing our first major proof point that AI can be a powerful tool to advance science. The profound scientific and societal value of this work was even recognized in 2024 with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In this episode, Hannah is joined by John Jumper, one of the most instrumental scientists behind AlphaFold. He shares stories about his Nobel win, the tool’s unexpected applications, and the shift in architecture from AlphaFold 2 to the more comprehensive AlphaFold 3.

Learn more about AlphaFold: https://deepmind.google/science/alphafold/

Watch the story behind AlphaFold on the Thinking Game, now available for free: https://youtu.be/d95J8yzvjbQ

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Timecodes
00:00 Intro
02:06 The Nobel Prize call
06:35 The "Grand Challenge" breakthrough
09:42 Reactions from the community
12:48 Unexpected use cases
16:04 AlphaFold 3 and diffusion models
26:54 Roman aqueducts
33:46 Designing new proteins
40:40 Does AI think?
46:51 Hannah’s reflections
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Thank you to everyone who made this possible, including but not limited to:

Presenter: Professor Hannah Fry
Series Producer: Dan Hardoon
Editor: Rami Tzabar
Commissioner & Producer: Emma Yousif
Music composition: Eleni Shaw
Audio engineer: Richard Courtice
Video editor: Anthony Le
Audio engineer: Perry Rogantin
Visual identity: Rob Ashley
Commissioned by Google DeepMind
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