The recent awarding of the Nobel Prize in chemistry is an incredible vote of confidence in the potential for artificial intelligence to transform the way medicines are invented by using AI to illuminate and manipulate proteins, life’s most basic building blocks.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored University of Washington professor David Baker and two scientists from Google DeepMind, CEO Demis Hassabis and senior research scientist John Jumper.

Hassabis and Jumper were recognized for winning a decadeslong race to use computers to predict a protein’s structure based on only on its genetic code. Baker’s prize nods to his use of computers to invent never-before-seen proteins.