Dr. David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine is one of the three winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry announced on Oct. 9. The American Cancer Society funded Dr. Baker’s work early in his career, and continues to fund work from his lab, including a newly awarded postdoctoral fellowship to one of his mentees. With this award, ACS has now funded 53 investigators who subsequently went on to win the Nobel Prize, considered the highest accolade any scientist can receive. Two additional ACS-funded researchers, Drs. Ambros and Ruvkun, were announced Oct. 7 as the recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Dr. Baker was funded in the mid-1990s for his work examining how amino acid sequences may determine protein 3-D structures. The Nobel Laureate honor recognizes his foundational work on computational protein design.
"At the American Cancer Society, we are incredibly proud of our robust scientific review process that allows us to fund groundbreaking research in its earliest stages. Dr. Baker's work on computational protein design has helped open up new vaccine applications and aided in the creation of new drugs that have had a tremendous impact on cancer treatment,” said Karen Knudsen, MBA, PhD, CEO of the American Cancer Society. “We are thrilled to have supported Dr. Baker in the early stages of his career as he was beginning this critically important work and congratulate him on his success!"
Proteins are composed of varying, unique combinations of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as life’s building blocks. By understanding the specific sequence of amino acids in a protein, scientists can often predict the final 3-D structure of the protein which dictates its ultimate function. In 2003, Dr. Baker’s groundbreaking work took this traditional approach of predicting 3-D protein structures from amino acid sequences and flipped it around to design novel proteins based on a desired final structure. 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.
"Dr. Baker’s fundamental work in protein structure and design established the knowledge needed for tremendous achievements in protein-based therapeutics such as antibodies, vaccines, and targeted nanoparticles,” said Christina Annunziata, senior vice president, Extramural Discovery Science at ACS. “This work has changed the lives of millions of cancer patients since its initial publication and will continue to do so far into the future."
The Nobel Prize, awarded in memory of Alfred Nobel since 1901, celebrates achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economic sciences. An awards ceremony will be held in December for the honorees. Learn more about past ACS-funded recipients on cancer.org.
