Latest posts

IN THE News

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.