David Baker on Hype vs. Reality in de Novo Protein Design

Summary

SEATTLE — In celebration of Nobel Prize announcement week, Fay Lin, PhD, Senior Editor, Technology at GEN, sat down with Nobel Laureate, David Baker, PhD, to unpack the hype vs. reality surrounding designing proteins from scratch (de novo) and explore what’s needed for the AI revolution to truly transform medicine. Baker, who is also the director of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington (UW), won a share of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering AI methods to design novel proteins for powerful applications across pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials, biosensors, and more. Seattle’s reputation as a science and technology powerhouse remains strong. Mary Brunkow, PhD, researcher at the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), was recently awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for uncovering the role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in peripheral immune tolerance. *David Baker, PhD, gave the inaugural keynote at GEN‘s virtual event, “The State of AI in Drug Discovery 2024.” Make sure to register for the 2025 event streaming on October 29.