David Baker, PhD

David Baker is a professor of biochemistry and the director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His lab develops protein design software and uses it to create molecules that solve challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Among his recent work is the development of powerful machine-learning methods for generating functional proteins.

David is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. He has published over 600 research papers, co-founded 21 companies, and been awarded more than 100 patents. Over 80 of his mentees have gone on to independent faculty positions.

David is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. In 2024, TIME named him among the world’s 100 Most Influential People in health.

He received his PhD in biochemistry with Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral work in biophysics with David Agard at UCSF.