RESEARCH IPD Translational Investigator, Dr. Ingrid Pultz, published a paper in JACS this month titled ‘Engineering of Kuma030: A Gliadin Peptidase That Rapidly Degrades Immunogenic Gliadin Peptides in Gastric Conditions‘. Using Rosetta to redesign the active site of the gliadin protease KumaMax – an enzyme computationally designed to break down gluten in the stomach – Dr. Pultz and …
Cyrus hires new EVP of Sales
Cyrus Biotechnology, the first company spinout from the IPD’s Translational Investigator Program, welcomes their new EVP of Sales, Rosario Caltabiano. Follow the link to the Cyrus website to learn more: http://cyrusbio.com/2015/10/01/cyrus-welcomes-evp-rosario-caltabiano/
August IPD News Roundup
RESEARCH Following the groundbreaking 2014 Nature paper describing the development of a computational method to design multi-component coassembling protein nanoparticles, comes a publication in Protein Science from Baker lab graduate student Jacob Bale and collaborators. Titled “Structure of a designed tetrahedral protein assembly variant engineered to have improved soluble expression“, the paper reports a variant of a previously low …
July IPD News Roundup
RESEARCH In an article out in Structure, Baker lab postdoc Dr. Hahnbeom Park in collaboration with IPD Assistant Professor Frank DiMaio investigate the origin of protein structure refinement from structural averaging at the residue level. Structure refinement has long been a challenge in the field of protein structure prediction and it aims to improve homology …
June IPD News Roundup
RESEARCH A new Science paper is out from Dr. David Baker and IPD collaborator Dr. Tamir Gonen (HHMI Janelia Campus) titled Design of ordered two-dimensional arrays mediated by noncovalent protein-protein interfaces. Graduate student Shane Gonen and Dr. Frank DiMaio describe a new computational approach to design two-dimensional protein arrays with a number of exciting potential applications …
New Science paper: Designed 2-D protein arrays
A new Science paper is out from IPD faculty Dr. David Baker titled Design of ordered two-dimensional arrays mediated by noncovalent protein-protein interfaces. Read the abstract below and the article at the link: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6241/1365 We describe a general approach to designing two-dimensional (2D) protein arrays mediated by noncovalent protein-protein interfaces. Protein homo-oligomers are placed into one of the …
IPD Launches First Company Spinout
Seattle, WA Today, we are announcing that Cyrus Biotechnology, has been successfully launched from the UW Institute for Protein Design (IPD) to pursue commercialization of an innovative user friendly software as a service (SaaS) cloud computing solution for distribution of the powerful “Rosetta” protein structure prediction and design algorithms. “Cyrus is the first new IPD …
May IPD News Roundup
The May IPD News Roundup covers a new Science paper from IPD Assistant Prof Frank DiMaio, a KOMO News interview with Translational Investigator Ingrid Swanson Pultz on celiac disease, and much more! At the link.
New structure solved for hyperthermophilic DNA virus
A new Science paper is out from IPD faculty Dr. Frank DiMaio titled A virus that infects a hyperthermophile encapsidates A-form DNA. Read the abstract below and the article at the link: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6237/914.full.pdf Extremophiles, microorganisms thriving in extreme environmental conditions, must have proteins and nucleic acids that are stable at extremes of temperature and pH. The nonenveloped, …
One-carbon pathway PNAS paper featured in Nature Chem Bio
The exciting protein design work by IPD researchers and collaborators in PNAS titled Computational protein design enables a novel one-carbon assimilation pathway has been featured in a Nature Chemical Biology News and Views piece. Follow the link to check it out: nchembio.1819
April IPD News Roundup
April IPD News Roundup is live at this link!
March IPD News Roundup
The March 2015 IPD news roundup is here! A new publication in PNAS on a completely novel metabolic pathway made via protein design and more. Read about it at the link.
February IPD News Roundup
This month’s roundup features an interview and two papers from IPD Assistant Professor Frank DiMaio as well as a new Science paper from the Baker lab on trapping transition states using protein design. Read more at the link.
AAAS 2015 Plenary Lecture by David Baker
David Baker, IPD Director and Professor of Biochemistry at the UW was the Plenary Speaker at this year’s AAAS meeting in San Francisco. A video of his talk, titled ‘Post-Evolutionary Biology: Design of Novel Protein Structures, Functions, and Assemblies’ covers a breadth of information on ongoing IPD research and can be viewed at the following …
January IPD News Roundup
A little late this month but it’s here!!! The January news roundup talks about a new Nature journal paper from the Baker lab, the second Mini Symposium, and much more. Follow the link and read more!
Independent Study Opportunity for Foster MBA Students
The Institute for Protein Design is seeking an MBA student to work with Institute leadership to collect market data on small molecule therapeutic targets for protein design. More information about this exciting independent study opportunity can be found on our Employment page here.
Institute for Protein Design Establishes Advisory Board
The Institute for Protein Design is pleased to announce its new advisory board! Follow the link to our news release for more information on our board members.
IPD Mini Symposium – Jan 20 2015
Our next Mini Symposium will be hosted on Jan 20 2015 and will feature Drs. Bill DeGrado (UCSF) and Gevorg Grigoryan (Dartmouth) speaking on “New Approaches to Protein Design”. More information at this link.
December IPD News Roundup
We wrapped up 2014 with a bang – introducing a new logo, getting a major award for celiac disease research, and successfully hosting our first Mini Symposium! Follow the link to read more.
Translational Investigator awarded LSDF Matching Grant Award for Celiac Disease Therapy
Please make a tax deductible donation at this LINK. IPD Translational Investigator Dr. Ingrid Swanson Pultz was awarded a Matching Grant award of $250K from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) for her project ‘In vivo assessment of an oral therapeutic for celiac disease‘! We need to raise an additional $74K …
November IPD News Roundup
Staff and scientists of the IPD and Foldit volunteered at Pacific Science Center’s Life Sciences Research Weekend this month – teaching budding scientists about the awesomeness of protein folding! Pics from the event and more Institute news at the link.
IPD Mini Symposium 2014
The UW Institute of Protein Design (IPD) presents a Mini Symposium on “Sweet Spots for Designed Proteins as Therapeutics” on Weds Dec 10 at 9 AM in HSB D-209. Follow the link to get more details! We hope to see you there!
October IPD News Roundup
Happy Fall from the IPD! Read about our October happenings in this month’s news roundup. Click here to read more.
Custom design of novel alphahelical bundles
A new paper is out in this week’s issue of Science entitled High thermodynamic stability of parametrically designed helical bundles. Using novel computational design methods, extremely stable helical bundles can be custom designed with fine-tuned structural geometries for a number of applications. Read more about this exciting work at this link.
September IPD News Roundup
We awarded our first round of WRF Innovation Postdoctoral fellowships this month! Follow the link to learn about our new fellows and to catch up on the research ongoing at the IPD.
August IPD News Roundup
The Foldit community has been leading the charge in the computational design of proteins to bind Ebola. Learn more about this work and other ongoing Institute news at the link.
Engineering an Oral Therapeutic for Celiac Disease
Learn how the IPD and Translational Investigator Dr. Ingrid Swanson Pultz are developing Kumamax, an oral therapeutic candidate for celiac disease. A slide presentation and more information at the link.
Targeting Ebola
The Foldit community to targets Ebola. Click here to learn more. Watch grad student Brian Koepnick and IPD Director David Baker talk about this work on this KOMO TV news segment. See the Seattle Times article here. Make a donation to help us fund our anti-Ebola effort.
Hiking the South Peak of The Brothers
Watch a video documenting a recent hike at The Brothers in the Olympics. IPD scientists, mountain goats, and stellar views – oh my!
The Power of Charity for Protein Design
Read a post about how the power of volunteer computing drives advances in protein design! Learn more at the link.
Letter from the Director – IPD Update
Read a letter from Institute for Protein Design Director Dr. David Baker summarizing the exciting accomplishments and progress made at the IPD in the past year.
July IPD News Roundup
This July, IPD staff and scientists ventured outdoors for a conference and for some fun adventures. Learn more at the link.
June IPD News Roundup
June at the IPD welcomed some new team members and saw some exciting new publications! Learn more here.
Designer Proteins to Target Cancer Cells
What if scientists could design a completely new protein that is precision-tuned to bind and inhibit cancer-causing proteins in the body? Collaborating scientists at the UW Institute for Protein Design (IPD) and Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute (MolES) have made this idea a reality with the designed protein BINDI. BINDI (BHRF1-INhibiting Design acting Intracellularly) is a completely novel protein, based …
Accurate Design of Co-Assembling Multi-Component Protein Nanomaterials
A new paper is out in the June 5 issue of Nature entitled Accurate design of co-assembling multi-component protein nanomaterials. Scientists at the Institute for Protein Design (IPD), in collaboration with researchers at UCLA and HHMI, have built upon their previous work constructing single-component protein nanocages and can now design and build self-assembling protein nanomaterials made up of …
May IPD News Roundup
May was a busy month at the IPD, with some new publications and exciting announcements! Learn more here.
Removing T-cell Epitopes with Computational Protein Design
In a recent PNAS paper entitled “Removing T-cell epitopes with computational protein design”, IPD researchers combine machine learning with computational protein design to demonstrate immune silencing of protein targets. This deimmunization has the potential to reduce or eliminate immunogenicity of protein therapeutics. Learn more at this link.
Women in Science Lunch Discussion
A recent Nature issue exposed the dismaying fact that many women are deterred from pursuing a career in science, especially at the highest levels (postdoctoral positions, faculty position, scientific advisory boards to start up companies, etc). To talk about this significant gender gap in science and the issues female scientists face, Baker lab members participated …
WRF Awards $8M for the IPD Innovation Fellows Program
May 15, 2014 With a very generous $8 M gift from the Washington Research Foundation (WRF), the IPD has launched the WRF-IPD Innovation Fellows Program supporting research partnerships between the IPD and other Seattle-area research institutes or UW departments. We are recruiting exceptionally talented researchers who have just finished their PhD to join expert laboratories at local institutions where they …
The “Three Dreamer” Protein Design Partnership for Alzheimer’s Disease
The “Three Dreamers” are a group of Seattle-based philanthropists whose family members are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The IPD has partnered with the Three Dreamers, the Foldit community and AD researchers at the UW to design new proteins targeting amyloid, thought to be the cause of AD. Learn more at this link.
Beyond Evolution: Protein Design News and Art
Re/Code writer James Temple has written an interesting article on David Baker’s efforts to design a new world of proteins. The article covers the IPD efforts to design proteins that neutralize the flu virus, Alzheimer’s disease amyloid protein, and how the IPD is engaging citizen scientists in the Rosetta@home and Foldit projects. Learn more at …
Design of Activated Serine-Containing Catalytic Triads with Atomic-Level Accuracy
Baker lab members published in Nature Chemical Biology a paper entitled “Design of activated serine-containing catalytic triads with atomic-level accuracy“, describing the computational design of proteins with idealized serine-containing catalytic triads which can capture and neutralize organophosphate probes. This work has utility in design of scavengers of environmental toxins. Learn more at this link.
Increasing Public Involvement in Structural Biology
Foldit is 5 years old. This publication entitled “Increasing public involvement in structural biology” chronicles the power of engaging the citizen science community on behalf of the computational challenge of protein folding. Learn more at this link.
A Computationally Designed Metalloprotein Using an Unnatural Amino Acid
What if scientists could design proteins to capture specific metals from our environment? The utility for cleaning up metals from waste water, soils, and our bodies could be tremendous. Dr. Jeremy Mills and collaborators in Dr. Baker’s group at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) address this challenge in the first reported …
A New Vaccine Design Method To Combat A Dangerous Virus
In a widely cited Nature paper entitled Proof of principle for epitope-focused vaccine design, IPD researchers and collaborators invented a new method to design novel proteins for use as a candidate vaccines to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a significant cause of infant mortality. Learn more at this link.
Seattle Health Innovators Visit the IPD
The Seattle Health Innovators recently visited the Institute for Protein Design, and wrote a nice blog entitled “Crowdsourcing the design of new molecules to improve healthcare and the environment.” The article provides a nice look into the Institute for Protein Design. Learn more at this link.
Computational Design of a pH Sensitive Antibody Binder
Purification of antibody IgG from crude serum or culture medium is required for virtually all research, diagnostic, and therapeutic antibody applications. Researchers at the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) have used computational methods to design a new protein (called “Fc-Binder”) that is programed to bind to the constant portion of IgG (aka “Fc” region) at basic …
KumaMax: Winner of C4C Recognition as a Novel Oral Therapeutic for Celiac Disease
Dr. Ingrid Swanson Pultz, a Translational Investigator at the Institute for Protein Design won first prize at the UW Center for Commercialization 2013 Innovator Recognition Event, for KumaMax, an enzyme designed in the Baker lab to efficiently break down gluten within the acidic environment of the stomach, before it can reach the small intestine where intact gluten …
David Baker at the 2013 Gairdner Award Celebrations in Toronto
David Baker, Head of the Institute for Protein Design was recently in Toronto, Canada in late October to deliver a lecture on protein design as part of Gairdner Award celebrations. This was written up in the Globe and Mail. Learn more at this link.
GIVING IN ACTION: Making Dreams Come True at the IPD
Thank you to our supporters. GIVING IN ACTION: Making Dreams Come True. Barton Family Foundation, Life Sciences Discovery Fund, Bruce and Jeannie Nordstrom, and Three Dreamers all supporting the IPD. Thank you all for your help in supporting our efforts in protein design.
Computational Protein Design To Improve Detoxification Rates Of Nerve Agents
V-type nerve agents are among the most toxic compounds known, and are chemically related to pesticides widespread in the environment. Using an integrated approach, described in an ACS Chemical Biology paper entitled Engineering V-type nerve agents detoxifying enzymes using computationally focused libraries, Dr. Izhack Cherny, Dr. Per Greisen, and collaborators increased the rate of nerve …
Automating Human Intuition for Protein Design
IPD researchers in the Baker group have improved protein computational design algorithms by “Automating human intuition for protein design.” Read more at this link.
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Professor David Baker Provides an In Depth Discussion on Protein Design
Prof. David Baker, Head of the UW Institute for Protein Design, HHMI Investigator provides an in depth discussion on the design of protein structures, functions and assemblies. Click here to watch the video.
Institute for Protein Design Infograph
High-Resolution Comparative Modeling with RosettaCM
Researchers in the Baker group describe an improved method for comparative modeling, RosettaCM, which optimizes a physically realistic all-atom energy function over the conformational space defined by homologous structures. Learn more at this link.
Computational Design Of A Protein That Binds Polar Surfaces
In a Journal of Molecular Biology publication entitled Computational design of a protein-based enzyme inhibitor, Dr. Erik Procko and collaborators describe the computational design of a protein-based enzyme inhibitor that binds the polar active site of hen egg lysosome (HEL). Computational design of a protein that binds polar surfaces has not been previously accomplished. Learn …
Rosetta Designed Protein (Toca 511), Now Offering Hope to Brain Cancer Patients
Brain cancer is a serious unmet medical challenge, and Washington state is one of the leading research clusters working on glioblastoma. Here we report on how RosettaDesign proteins are being used to treat brain cancer! Read more about this important translational protein design effort here.
Life Sciences Discovery Fund Awards $1.4M to the Institute for Protein Design
The Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) today announced its latest round of Opportunity Grants, and awarded $1.4 M to the University of Washington (UW) to “Launch of the Institute for Protein Design for Creating New Therapeutics, Vaccines and Diagnostics.” This LSDF Opportunity Grant Award will enable the IPD Translational Investigators to improve upon protein design discoveries so that they …
One Small Molecule Binding Protein, One Giant Leap for Protein Design
Reported on-line in Nature (Sept. 4, 2013) researchers at the Institute for Protein Design describe the use of Rosetta computer algorithms to design a protein which binds with high affinity and specificity to a small drug molecule, digoxigenin a dangerous but sometimes life saving cardiac glycoside. Learn more at this link.
IPD Researchers Publish New Protocols for Preparing Protein Scaffold Libraries for Functional Site Design
IPD researchers in the Baker group have published new computational protocols for preparing protein scaffold libraries for functional site design. Their paper entitled “A Pareto-optimal refinement method for protein design scaffolds“ improves the search for amino acids with the lowest energy subject to a set of constraints specifying function. Learn more at this link.
Centenary Award and Frederick Gowland Hopkins Memorial Lecture
Dr. David Baker, Director of the IPD delivered the Centenary Award and Frederick Gowland Hopkins Memorial Lecture at at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK, on December, 13, 2012. Baker’s lecture entitled “Protein folding, structure prediction and design” can be read at this published link. See: Baker, D. (2014). Protein folding, structure prediction and design.. Biochemical Society …
Proteins Made to Order. Researchers at the IPD Design Proteins from Scratch with Predictable Structures
A team from David Baker’s laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle have described a set of “rules” for the design of proteins from scratch, and have demonstrated the successful design of five new proteins that fold reliably into predicted conformations. Their work was published Nature. Learn more at this link.
The IPD Moves Into the New Molecular Engineering and Sciences Building
The Institute for Protein Design and David Baker’s laboratory have moved into the new Molecular Engineering & Sciences Building located in the heart of the University of Washington campus. Read about the Institute’s new home and its exciting research in the Seattle Times, and also at this link.
Computer Designed Proteins Programmed to Disarm a Variety of Flu Viruses
As reported in Nature Biotechnology, David Baker and scientists at the IPD published exciting new methods to improve the potency and breadth of computer-designed protein inhibitors of influenza. Learn more at this link.
Computational Design of Self-Assembling Protein Nanomaterials with Atomic Level Accuracy
IPD researchers in the Baker group have published in Science a paper entitled “Computational design of self-assembling protein nanomaterials with atomic level accuracy.” They describe a general computational method for designing proteins that self-assemble to a desired symmetric architecture. Protein building blocks are docked together symmetrically to identify complementary packing arrangements, and low-energy protein-protein interfaces are then designed …
UW to Establish Institute for Protein Design
Dr. Paul Ramsey, CEO of UW Medicine, announces the establishment of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD). “A major challenge for designing proteins for specific purposes is predicting three-dimensional shape from the amino acid sequence. Dr. David Baker, UW professor of biochemistry and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has had remarkable success in …