Our Mission

Natural proteins evolved over millions of years to solve the most complex challenges on Earth, but we face new and pressing challenges today. The goal of the Institute for Protein Design is to create a new world of synthetic proteins to address these challenges.

To achieve this, we are marshaling deep institutional strengths in our faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students as well as our partners from collaborating institutions, innovator networks, and from the computer and biotechnology industries. We are bringing extraordinary expertise to bear on a singular focus to advance the potential of protein design.

What is protein design?

Proteins are the molecular machines that make all living things hum — they stop deadly infections, heal cells and capture energy from the sun. Yet because our basic understanding of how proteins work has until now remained a mystery, humans have only been able to harness the power of proteins by modifying ones we happen to find in nature.

Enabled by decades of basic research, the rise of inexpensive computing, and the genomics revolution in reading and writing DNA, we can now design new proteins from scratch with specific functions.

Our scientists have developed catalysts for chemical reactions, HIV and RSV vaccine candidates, and experimental therapies for diseases such as cancer and the flu.

Research Areas