We’re pleased to announce that Lynda Stuart, MD, PhD, will serve as Executive Director of the Institute for Protein Design starting May 1. She is an accomplished immunologist and former Deputy Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Dr. Lynda Stuart is a physician, scientist, and advocate for healthcare as a human right with over 20 years of experience in immunology, global health, and product development. With her unique background in transforming laboratory breakthroughs into real-world impact, she is well-positioned to help lead us in our mission to create proteins that solve modern challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability.
As Executive Director, Lynda will direct institute operations, translational research, and corporate and foundation collaborations at the Institute for Protein Design.
“I believe the tools and technologies being developed at the Institute for Protein Design are amongst the most significant scientific breakthroughs of the last 50 years. When thinking about how to apply them, we are faced with both a challenge and an opportunity: we must ensure that we pursue not only things of commercial value, but things that are of great societal value, too.”
Lynda Stuart, MD, PhD, Executive Director of the Institute for Protein Design
As Deputy Director of the Gates Foundation from 2016 to 2022, Lynda oversaw the development and distribution of vaccines, biologics, and antibody therapies to address urgent global health challenges.
Notably, she led the Foundation’s COVID-19 discovery and translational vaccine response efforts, managing a large portfolio of COVID-19 and pan-coronavirus vaccine candidates. During this time, she collaborated closely with our Institute to guide the development and approval of SKYCovione, our royalty-free vaccine for COVID-19.
Since leaving the Gates Foundation, Dr. Stuart was the Vice President of Infectious Disease at the mRNA company BioNTech. Dr. Stuart now holds a faculty appointment with the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Dr. Stuart recieved a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and an MD from the University of Cambridge and the University of London. She has served on the Massachusetts General Hospital Executive Committee for Research and as an affiliate of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Stuart to the Institute for Protein Design. Her vision for global health, proven leadership skills, and track record of forming globe-spanning collaborative networks for innovation make her the ideal partner to help guide the IPD into a new era of discovery and innovation.”
David Baker, PhD, Director of the Institute for Protein Design
Concurrent with this appointment, the Institute for Protein Design has established a new Governance Board comprising interim CEO of UW Medicine Tim Dellit, MD, Chair of the UW Department of Biochemistry Trisha Davis, PhD, and David Baker, PhD. As Executive Director, Dr. Stuart will report to the IPD Governance Board.
About the Institute for Protein Design
The Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine is a premier research organization dedicated to advancing protein science and developing innovative protein-based solutions to modern challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the Institute merges computational design methods with laboratory testing to create novel molecules with custom functions. These include innovative vaccines, therapeutics, nanomaterials, and more.