SEATTLE, April 5, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle has been awarded $11.3 million from the Open Philanthropy Project to support the institute's technological revolution in protein design and support its work on the development of a universal flu vaccine.
The Open Philanthropy Project is based in San Francisco, Calif. The gift is:
- One of Open Philanthropy Project's largest awards in the sciences to date.
- Its first scientific gift in the Seattle area.
- Its first investment at UW Medicine.
The gift comes in two parts:
- $5.6 million to refine and advance Rosetta, the widely-used software platform for protein design originally developed at UW.
- $5.7 million for the institute's program to develop a universal flu vaccine.
"We're excited to help move science forward in ways not seen before with proteins, which are essential to life. This grant recognizes that UW Medicine is at the forefront of unlocking the keys to the use of proteins in medical settings," says Chris Somerville, a Program Officer for Scientific Research at the Open Philanthropy Project. "The universal flu vaccine is a tough nut to crack, but David Baker has shown the ability to pioneer life-changing scientific research. It's exciting that whether a universal flu vaccine is developed or not, this gift will build techniques and technologies that will advance science and have a huge variety of implications in medicine and industry."
Proteins are the workhorses of all living creatures, fulfilling the instructions of DNA. Existing proteins are the products of billions of years of evolution and carry out all the important functions in our body—digesting food, building tissue, transporting oxygen through the bloodstream, firing neurons, and powering muscles.
"This gift is speeding up a technological revolution in how we design proteins. Our team can now custom design proteins from scratch, creating entirely novel molecules that can be used for new treatments, new diagnostics and new biomaterials," said David Baker, the institute's director as well as professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
The Open Philanthropy Project identifies outstanding giving opportunities, makes grants, follows the results, and publishes its findings. Its main funders are Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook and Asana.
Useful links:
For more about this gift and research, and downloadable video about the effort, please see https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/researchers-receive-113-million-seek-universal-flu-vaccine
Institute for Protein Design: http://www.ipd.uw.edu/
Open Philanthropy Project: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/
Media Contacts:
Walter Neary, UW Medicine, wneary@uw.edu; 253.389.0736
Michael Levine, Open Philanthropy Project, michael.levine@openphilanthropy.org; 415.562.5296
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SOURCE UW Medicine