David Baker, Director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington in Seattle, receives this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for his achievements in building entirely new kinds of proteins.
Proteins generally consist of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks. In 2003, David Baker succeeded in using these blocks to design a new protein that was unlike any other protein. Since then, his research group has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.
He has published over 600 research papers, co-founded 21 companies, and been awarded more than 100 patents.
In 2017, David Baker became TUM Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the Chemistry Department of the TUM School of Natural Science.