David Baker (biochemist)

David Baker (born October 6, 1962) is an American biochemist and computational biologist. He has created new ways to design proteins and predict their three-dimensional structures. Because of his important work, he was awarded the shared 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Baker is a professor at the University of Washington and works with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is also part of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Engineering. In addition to his research, he helps lead the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design and has helped start many biotechnology companies. In 2024, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in health by Time magazine.

Biography

David Baker was born on October 6, 1962, in Seattle, Washington. He went to Garfield High School and later earned a degree in biology from Harvard University. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley and then worked with scientists at the University of California, San Francisco.

Baker started working at the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1993. He became known for his important work in biochemistry and was chosen to be a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is married to another scientist, Hannele Ruohola-Baker, and they have two children.

Research

David Baker is a scientist known for creating ways to predict and design the shapes and jobs of proteins. He has written more than 600 science papers.

His team made a tool called the Rosetta algorithm to help figure out protein shapes. This idea grew into a game called Foldit and a project where people help with computer work from home. His team often takes part in a contest to guess protein shapes and has made a new program called RoseTTAFold using smart computer learning.

Baker’s team also designs new proteins, like one called Top7, which was the first made-up protein with a brand-new shape. In 2017, his group got a lot of money to keep doing this work, and more money came in 2021. In 2019, Baker spoke at a big science meeting in Vancouver, Canada, about how designing new proteins could solve important problems. He helped start several science companies too.

Awards

David Baker has won many awards for his important work on how proteins fold and are designed. Some of his awards include the Overton Prize in 2002, the Sackler International Prize in Biophysics in 2008, and the Wiley Prize in 2022. He also received the Newcomb Cleveland Prize and the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, both in 2004.

In 2024, Baker shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on designing proteins. He received half of the prize, while the other half went to John M. Jumper and Demis Hassabis for creating AlphaFold, a program that helps predict protein structures. In 2025, he was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.