David Baker

Facts

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

David Baker
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024

Born: 1962, Seattle, WA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA

Prize motivation: “for computational protein design”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

Proteins control and drive all the chemical reactions that together are the basis of life. 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. Baker used computer-based methods, which he had developed. This created opportunities to developpossibilities to create an enormous diversity of new proteins were opened up. New proteins can be used in, for example, drugs, vaccines and materials and sensors.

To cite this section
MLA style: David Baker – Facts – 2024. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Sun. 3 Nov 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2024/baker/facts/>

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