European XFEL congratulates Nobel Prize winners in chemistry

Hinweis zur Verwendung von Bildmaterial: Die Verwendung des Bildmaterials zur Pressemitteilung ist bei Nennung der Quelle vergütungsfrei gestattet. Das Bildmaterial darf nur in Zusammenhang mit dem Inhalt dieser Pressemitteilung verwendet werden. Falls Sie das Bild in höherer Auflösung benötigen oder Rückfragen zur Weiterverwendung haben, wenden Sie sich bitte direkt an die Pressestelle, die es veröffentlicht hat.

David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper. Ill. Niklas Elmehed | Copyright: © Nobel Prize Outreach | Download

The researchers at the world's largest free-electron laser, the European XFEL, are delighted that Demis Hassabis, John M. Jumper and David Baker have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The decoding of protein structures is an important field of research for X-ray lasers such as the European XFEL.

Prof David Baker has been an active user of the European XFEL since 2022. His team has actively participated in single-molecule imaging experiments at the Small Quantum Systems (SQS) and SPB/SFX instrument.

There, they recorded diffraction patterns of computationally designed proteins and single molecules for the first time.

“We are excited that David Baker has received the Nobel Prize for his ground-breaking work in the computer-aided design of de novo proteins," says Thomas Feurer, Chairman of the Management Board of European XFEL. "We look forward to collaborating on upcoming experiments where he plans to explore the ultra-fast dynamics and behaviour of these innovative proteins with us.”

Henry Chapman, who leads the Coherent X-Ray Imaging division at the Center for Free Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY and is a spokesperson for the SFX user consortium adds: „It has been wonderful to collaborate with David Baker and his group on using designer proteins for XFEL experiments to learn more about protein dynamics."