I am delighted to share the news that Dr. David Baker has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in computational protein design. Baker holds the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professorship in Biochemistry at the UW School of Medicine and is the director of the Institute for Protein Design.
Baker shares the Nobel Prize with Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of DeepMind, who were honored for protein structure prediction. The award was announced earlier today by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, and will be presented in December.
In their press release, the Royal Swedish Academy wrote that “David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins.” Proteins are the workhorses of biology, essential for countless cellular functions. Baker and his colleagues have for decades used computing power to learn how long chains of chemicals called amino acids fold into protein structures. The resulting 3-D shapes of protein molecules determine how they function in living systems and are important for understanding biology and developing new medicines.
Recently, artificial intelligence has been tapped by Baker and others to predict protein structures with unprecedented accuracy and speed. This has greatly expanded scientists’ ability to model the building blocks of life.
Baker is also known for collaborating on the development of an online video puzzle game called “Foldit” with colleagues at the UW Center for Game Science. This game enables people with no background in science to help solve protein structure problems. More than 400,000 people have played the game, and Foldit players have been named as co-authors in some of Baker’s published work. These citizen scientists have contributed to research on a wide range of medical challenges, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and the Ebola virus.
Baker has worked on designing new proteins not found in nature, including molecules that carry out specific tasks. His lab has created new proteins that neutralize viruses, target cancer cells, and even serve as catalysts for chemical reactions. His research contributed to the development of the world’s first computationally designed protein medicine, a vaccine for COVID-19 pioneered by colleagues at UW Medicine.
To date, Baker has published more than 640 peer-reviewed research papers, received more than 100 patents and co-founded 21 biotechnology companies. Ninety of his doctoral and postdoctoral trainees have gone on to independent faculty positions. His dedication to open science has fostered a collaborative community of researchers worldwide, and he has ensured that the most advanced tools and insights developed through his work are shared freely to accelerate scientific discovery.
Press Conference Today: Dr. Baker will speak at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. It will be livestreamed on the UW Medicine YouTube channel.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Baker on becoming a Nobel laureate and for his contributions to our mission to improve the health of the public.
For more information, visit the UW Medicine Newsroom and the Nobel Prize website.
Sincerely,
Timothy H. Dellit, MD (He, Him, His)
Chief Executive Officer, UW Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and
Paul G. Ramsey Endowed Dean of the School of Medicine,
University of Washington
