User:Ichaydon/sandbox

= Institute for Protein Design = The Institute for Protein Design is a cross-disciplinary research institute at the University of Washington focused on the computational design of new proteins with applications in basic science, medicine, clean energy, nanoengineering and defense. The director of the Institute, biochemist David Baker, is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of protein design.

History
The Institute was founded in 2012 to accelerate ongoing research in the Seattle area and to leverage talent from the local software industry, which includes Amazon and Microsoft. In September 2015, the Institute relocated to the Molecular Engineering & Sciences building on the University of Washington's Seattle campus and later expanded into the adjacent Nanoengineering & Sciences building. As of January 2019, the Institute employs more than 140 faculty, staff, visiting scientists, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students.

Research
Before the Institute for Protein Design was founded, the Baker lab produced Top7, the first computer-generated protein with a novel fold, and the first non-natural enzymes. Since its founding, researchers at the Institute have developed and applied methods for designing peptides, enzymes, nanomaterials, biosensors and protein-based therapeutics. These discoveries all involve both intensive computational modeling and laboratory experimentation. The Institute has spun-out several biotech companies.

In addition to designing and testing new proteins, researchers at the Institute for Protein Design also contribute to the development of Rosetta, a widely used molecular modeling software package created in the Baker lab. Researchers at the Institute also compete in CASP, a biannual protein structure prediction competition. In a report published January 2017, a team lead by researchers at the Institute used Rosetta structure calculations to generate models for 614 protein families that lacked structures, accounting for 12% of all then-unknown protein families.

The protein design research performed at the Institute was selected as a runner-up for Breakthrough of the Year by Science in 2016. 

Funding
The Institute for Protein Design was launched with support from the State of Washington and several other funding sources. It continues to receive support from many state and federal government agencies as well as philanthropic sources, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2017, the Open Philanthropy Project awarded the Institute a $11.5M to support the development of a universal influenza vaccine. This remains OPP's largest gift in support of scientific research at a university.