David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, talks to reporters on Wednesday morning. Baker won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (Ian C Haydon/UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design)
A University of Washington professor received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work designing new proteins, the building blocks of life.
David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and director of the school’s Institute for Protein Design, received the prize for computational protein design, along with Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google DeepMind, whose work with artificial intelligence helps predict the shape of proteins.
Their work could help accelerate the creation of new medicines and vaccines, expand abilities to break down things like plastic and other pollutants, or open opportunities to build new materials altogether.
“Proteins solve all of the problems that living things have to deal with,” Baker told reporters on Wednesday. “So if you can make new proteins, you can potentially solve a lot of current problems for which there aren’t proteins to deal with.”
Baker, 62, is the eighth University of Washington faculty member and the sixth School of Medicine faculty member to receive the Nobel Prize.
Designing new proteins was always a “crazy idea” — one scientists have been trying to crack for decades, Baker said.
His work eventually led him to create computer software that analyzes information about existing proteins in order to build new ones. That software, along with the use of Hassabis’ and Jumper’s artificial intelligence tools that predict protein structure, could help scientists more quickly and accurately understand and construct proteins.
“David and his team really contributed and led the cracking of the code to protein structure, how amino acid chains fold together in a three-dimensional structure to be the building blocks of life,” said Dr. Timothy Dellit, CEO of UW Medicine and dean of the UW School of Medicine.
Proteins from Baker’s lab have already contributed to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, a COVID-19 nasal spray, and a medication for celiac disease.
University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce called Baker’s work “a truly visionary approach to protein science.”
“This is as good as it gets,” she told reporters Wednesday. “This is about taking these great basic science ideas and pushing them out so that they make a difference in the world.”
Baker grew up in Seattle, and his parents were both faculty members at the university. He completed his undergraduate degree at Harvard University in 1984 and earned his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. He joined the faculty at UW’s Department of Biochemistry in 1993.
For Baker, his work is just beginning. Now that his lab has figured out how to design new proteins, Baker said they will continue to experiment more with how to use them. For example, he and his students are looking at ways to block snake venom in the body, improve the efficiency of photosynthesis, or remove toxic tissue from the bloodstream.
He praised the university as an “absolutely wonderful place to do science.”
“I’ve been here for a long time and never thought for a nanosecond about leaving,” Baker said.