However, there is no shortage of Nobel-worthy discoveries: Here are five breakthroughs that haven’t resulted in a life-changing call from Stockholm — at least not yet.
The first human genome
The human genome mapping is one often-discussed contender for the Nobel Prize. It was an ambitious undertaking that began in 1990 and was finished in 2003.
A global collaboration of thousands of researchers from the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, and China worked to crack the genetic code of human life.
The project has significantly influenced numerous sectors, including biology and medicine. However, the sheer magnitude of the teamwork required to pull off the achievement may be one reason the project did not win a Nobel Prize.
The limitations imposed by Nobel in his 1895 will state that only three persons may be honored with a prize, which presents an increasing difficulty considering how collaborative much scientific research is today.
A revolution in obesity treatment
The last few years have seen a revolution in the medical field due to the development of popular weight-loss medications that imitate the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1.
The medicine, which reduces blood sugar and limits appetite, has the potential to herald in a new era for the treatment of obesity and related illnesses like type 2 diabetes. Currently, one in eight individuals worldwide suffer from obesity, a number that has more than doubled since 1990.
Svetlana Mojsov, Dr. Joel Habener, and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, the three scientists who worked on the drug's development, were awarded the 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. This award is frequently used to predict which scientists or breakthroughs will be awarded the Nobel Prize.
GLP-1 was discovered and synthesized with assistance from Mojsov, an associate research professor of biochemistry at Rockefeller University, and Habener, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Knudsen, Novo Nordisk's main scientific adviser for research and early development, was instrumental in making it into a successful medication that millions of people take today to aid in weight loss.
Transformative AI
The speed at which artificial intelligence, or AI, is changing people's lives is unparalleled.
According to David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate's Institute for Scientific Information, there are two names that stick out in a crowded area. Pendlebury determines who is "Nobel-worthy" by tracking the frequency with which other scientists reference a person's seminal scientific work over time.
Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, the Google DeepMind creators of the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, which is utilized by at least two million researchers worldwide to decipher the 3D structures of proteins from amino acid sequences, are the two pivotal figures.
By acting as a "Google search" for protein structures, AlphaFold speeds up research in basic biology and related domains by giving users immediate access to projected protein models.
More than 13,000 citations have been made to the pair's seminal study since it was published in 2021, a figure Pendlebury called "extraordinary." According to him, just about 500 of the 61 million scientific papers published have received more than 10,000 citations.
The 2023 Lasker and Breakthrough prizes have already been claimed by Jumper and Hassabis. Together with a third researcher, David Baker, who established AlphaFold and is the director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Pendlebury suggested they might share a Nobel Prize in chemistry.
However, Pendlebury noted that it might be too soon for the traditionally conservative Nobel committee to recognize the topic.
"There have been suggestions that the work is too fresh, that it is too early for this kind of award, and that this is a completely new field—the use of AI to scientific study," he said.
Understanding the gut microbiome
Our body do not belong to us alone. The human microbiome is the collection of trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that reside on and in the human body.
Scientists now have a greater understanding of the functions of these bacteria, their interactions with human cells, especially in the gut, and how they communicate with one another thanks to developments in DNA sequencing over the past 20 years.
Pendlebury stated that the field is long overdue for a Nobel acknowledgment.
An innovator in the field, biologist Dr. Jeffrey Gordon is the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Gordon began his quest to comprehend the human gut microbiota and how it affects human health by studying mice in a lab. Leading research on the connection between the gut microbiota and the health consequences of undernutrition—which impacts over 200 million children worldwide—he is creating dietary treatments aimed at promoting gut health.
Cancer-causing genes
Although it was known in the 1970s that cancer might occasionally run in families, hereditary vulnerability to the disease was not taken into consideration in the mainstream diagnosis of breast cancer.
With a background in exploring the genetic distinctions between humans and chimpanzees, Mary-Claire King, now a professor of medicine and genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, chose a unique approach.
King spent 17 years discovering and determining the impact a mutation of the BRCA1 gene played in breast and ovarian cancer, working long before scientists had any form of map of the human genome.
Thanks to this revelation, genetic testing can now determine which women are more likely to get breast cancer and provide recommendations for preventive operations and further screenings to lower that risk.
On Monday, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will be awarded; on Tuesday, the physics prize; and on Wednesday, the chemistry prize. The Nobel Peace Prize will be revealed on Friday, and the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday.