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Protein drugs designed from the ground up
Today we report in Nature a new method for generating protein drugs. Using Rosetta-based design, an international team designed molecules that can target important proteins in the body, such as the insulin receptor, as well as proteins on the surface of viruses. This solves a long-standing challenge in drug development and may lead to new treatments for…
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Diverse protein assemblies by (negative) design
A new approach for creating custom protein complexes yields asymmetric assemblies with interchangeable parts. Today we report in Science the design of new protein assemblies made from modular parts. These complexes — which adopt linear, branching, or closed-loop architectures — contain up to six unique proteins, each of which remains folded and soluble in the absence…
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Breakthrough of the Year
The journal Science has selected artificial intelligence algorithms that predict the three-dimensional shapes of proteins — as well as the blizzard of protein structures they have revealed — as their 2021 Breakthrough of the Year. We are honored to have our work in this field recognized alongside that of the company DeepMind. As David Baker told…
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Deep learning dreams up new protein structures
Just as convincing images of cats can be created using artificial intelligence, new proteins can now be made using similar tools. In a new report in Nature, we describe the development of a neural network that “hallucinates” proteins with new, stable structures. “For this project, we made up completely random protein sequences and introduced mutations…
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UW BIOFAB: a force for reproducible science
This article was written by Renske Dyedov (UW) Key to advancing any new scientific discovery is the ability for researchers to independently repeat the experiments that led to it. In science today, particularly biology, the lack of reproducibility between experiments is a major problem that slows scientific progress, wastes resources and time, and erodes the…
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Deep learning reveals how proteins interact
A team led by scientsts in the Baker lab has combined recent advances in evolutionary analysis and deep learning to build three-dimensional models of how most proteins in eukaryotes interact. This breakthrough has significant implications for understanding the biochemical processes that are common to all animals, plants, and fungi. This open-access work appears in Science.…
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COVID-19 vaccine with IPD nanoparticles meets Phase 1/2 trial goals
This report was written and translated into English by SK bioscience. (Image: SK bioscience) SK bioscience (CEO Jae-yong Ahn) announced on November 4th that the company has confirmed a positive immune response and safety in the final analysis result of the phase I/II clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, ‘GBP510,’ co-developed with the Institute…
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Baker lab joins USAID’s $125M project to detect emerging viruses
To better identify and prevent future pandemics, the University of Washington has become a partner in a five-year global, collaborative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The newly launched Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens – Viral Zoonoses, or DEEP VZN project, has approximately $125 million in anticipated funding and will be led…
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Dr. Berger wins additional WRF translational funding
Washington Research Foundation (WRF) has awarded a $700,000 phase three technology commercialization grant to Stephanie Berger, Ph.D., to support the development of an oral biologic for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Berger, a translational investigator at the Institute for Protein Design, received two previous grants totaling $300,500 from WRF for this work. IBD affects roughly three…
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On the passing of Tachi Yamada
Tadataka “Tachi” Yamada MD, KBE served as the Advisory Board Chair of our Institute since its founding almost ten years ago. His tremendous mentorship helped us in innumerable ways to grow from a single-PI Institute founded by David Baker to a group of five faculty and almost 200 scientists and staff. Tachi also helped…
