Professor Niazi Challenges the 2024 Chemistry Nobel Prize that the 3D Protein Structure cannot be predicted, refuting claims of Rosetta and AlphaFold

CHICAGO, April 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sarfaraz K. Niazi, an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, today filed a petition against the Nobel Prize Foundation for the selection of the 2024 Prize in Chemistry. Today, he published a peer-reviewed scientific paperⁱ in the Elsevier journal challenging this decision to award the 2024 Chemistry prize to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for creating Rosetta and AlphaFold computer algorithm to predict the 3D structure of proteins based on a given amino acid sequence. Professor Niazi presents a quantum mechanics model to demonstrate that a given amino acid chain can have trillions of possible 3D structures that can never be projected by any chemical testing method that changes the 3D structure to test. All computer algorithms are based on 3D structures that do not correlate with the active structure of any 3D protein. Professor Niazi created a new paradox: "3D structure is based on but independent of amino acid sequence." The computer algorithms funded with billions of dollars of investment are based on known 3D structures unrelated to a physiologically or pharmacologically active protein. Their success in presenting their version of 3D structures results from extensive computer power, collecting data from millions of sources. According to Professor Niazi, this is not a breakthrough discovery, as he wrote to the Nobel Prize Foundation challenging their decision to award the 2024 Chemistry Nobel Prize.

According to Professor Niazi, as he showed in his paper, these algorithms fail in predicting a random structure since they are all based on the learning of known structures; however, these structures do not represent the structure that is responsible for the activity of proteins; thus any such prediction has little research value. He expects the Nobel Foundation to respond to his challenge. He plans to expand the role of artificial intelligence in drug discovery and development to treat today's untreatable diseases.

Contact Information

Sarfaraz K. Niazi, Ph.D. [email protected]

ⁱ Niazi, SK, Quantum mechanics paradox in protein structure prediction: Intrinsically linked to sequence yet independent of it, Computational and Structural Biotechnology Reports, Volume 2, 2025, 100039, ISSN 2950-3639, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csbr.2025.100039. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950363925000109)

SOURCE Professor Sarfaraz K. Niazi