“We believe that almost all of medicine will be transformed by protein design”

After receiving the 15th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine, biochemist David Baker discusses his work on protein design, explaining how computational and experimental techniques are combined to create new molecules useful in health, and the role of collaboration between laboratories in advancing this field. He also reflects on future challenges, the interdisciplinarity required across areas such as biochemistry, engineering, and computer science, and the importance of long-term vision in scientific innovation.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine has gone in this fifteenth edition to David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Michael Jumper “for their contributions to the use of artificial intelligence for the accurate prediction of the three-dimensional structure of proteins,” in the words of the committee; an advance, it adds, with huge biomedical potential for the development of new treatments against multiple conditions.