__NOTOC__ David Baker (born October 6, 1962, in Seattle, Washington) is an American

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological che ...

and

computational biologist Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has f ...

who has pioneered methods to

predict A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dicere'', "to say"), or forecasting, forecast, is a statement about a future event (probability theory), event or data. They are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. There i ...

and

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

the three-dimensional structures of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respon ...

s. He is the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry and an adjunct professor of Genome Sciences, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

. He serves as the Director of the Rosetta Commons, a consortium of labs and researchers that develop biomolecular structure prediction and design software. The problem of protein structure prediction to which Baker has contributed significantly has now been solved completely by DeepMind using artificial intelligence. Baker is a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, f ...

investigator and a member of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

. He is also the director of the University of Washington's

Institute for Protein Design An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

Life

Baker did his graduate work in biochemistry at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in the laboratory of

Randy Schekman Randy Wayne Schekman (born December 30, 1948) is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, former editor-in-chief of ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' and former editor of '' Annual Review of Cell an ...

, where he worked predominantly on protein transport and trafficking in

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to consti ...

. He did his postdoctoral work with

David Agard David A. Agard is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. He earned his B.S. in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics from Yale University and his Ph.D. in biological chemistry from California ...

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It co ...

. For his work on protein folding, Baker received the 2008 Sackler International Prize in Biophysics, the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and also for 2021 the Wiley Prize. Baker was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

in 2009. He is married to

Hannele Ruohola-Baker Hannele Ruohola-Baker is a Professor of Biochemistry and Associate Director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Her research focuses on the molecular biology of stem cel ...

, another biochemist at UW. They have two children.

Career

Baker's group developed the Rosetta algorithm for ''ab initio''

protein structure prediction Protein structure prediction is the inference of the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence—that is, the prediction of its secondary and tertiary structure from primary structure. Structure prediction is differen ...

, which has been extended to a

distributed computing A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...

project called Rosetta@Home and Foldit. The project aims to produce structural models for

protein complexes A protein complex or multiprotein complex is a group of two or more associated polypeptide chains. Protein complexes are distinct from multienzyme complexes, in which multiple catalytic domains are found in a single polypeptide chain. Protein ...

as well as individual polypeptide chains. The group specializes in the CASP structure prediction experiment using ''ab initio'' methods, including both manually assisted and automated variants of the Rosetta protocol. Members of his group are active in the field of protein design; they are noted for designing a protein, known as

Top7 Top7 is an artificial 93-residue protein, classified as a '' de novo'' protein since it was designed by Brian Kuhlman and Gautam Dantas in David Baker's laboratory at the University of Washington to have a unique fold not found in nature. The pr ...

, with an entirely novel fold. Although primarily known for the development of methods for computational prediction of protein structure and function, he is also interested in the use of computational methods to drive experimental assessment of biology; his laboratory maintains an active experimental biochemistry group. He also served on the Life Sciences jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to re ...

in 2016.

Appearances

In December 2018, Baker spoke at the "Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics" conference in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. In April 2019, Baker gave a TED talk titled "5 challenges we could solve by designing new proteins" at TED2019 in Vancouver, Canada.

References

External links

David Baker online talk: "Crowd Sourcing Protein Folding: Rosetta@Home and FoldIt"
* ttp://www.ibiology.org/ibioseminars/david-baker-part-2.html David Baker online seminar: "Design of New Protein Functions" {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, David American biochemists Overton Prize winners American bioinformaticians Living people 1962 births Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences University of Washington faculty Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of California, San Francisco alumni