Distinguished Keynotes

Links within this page: David Baker | Charlotte Deane | John Jumper

Title TBD

Abstract coming soon.

Biography

Nobel Laureate David Baker is a professor of biochemistry, HHMI investigator, and the director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The Baker Lab develops protein design software and uses it to create molecules that solve challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Among his recent work is the development of powerful machine-learning methods for generating functional proteins.

David is also an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. He has published over 640 research papers, co-founded 21 companies, and been awarded more than 100 patents. Ninety of his mentees have gone on to independent faculty positions.

David is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. TIME named him among the world’s 100 Most Influential People in health.

He received his PhD in biochemistry with Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral work in biophysics with David Agard at UCSF.

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Title TBD

Abstract coming soon.

Biography

Charlotte Deane MBE is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford and the Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

From 2022 to 2023, Charlotte was Chief AI Officer at Exscientia, a biotech with ~450 employees, where she led its computational scientific development.

She served on SAGE, the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and acted as UK Research and Innovation’s COVID-19 Response Director.

At Oxford, Charlotte leads the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG), who work on diverse problems across immunoinformatics, protein structure and small molecule drug discovery; using statistics, AI and computation to generate biological and medical insight.

Her work focuses on the development of novel algorithms, tools and databases that are openly available to the community. These tools are widely used web resources and are also part of several Pharma drug discovery pipelines. Charlotte is a member of several advisory boards and has consulted extensively with industry. Additionally, she has established a consulting arm within her research group as a way of promoting industrial interaction and use of the group’s software tools.

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Title TBD

Abstract coming soon.

Biography

John Jumper received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, where he developed machine learning methods to simulate protein dynamics. Prior to that, he worked at D.E. Shaw Research on molecular dynamics simulations of protein dynamics and supercooled liquids. He also holds an MPhil in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University. At Google DeepMind, John is leading the development of new methods to apply machine learning to protein biology. John has won numerous awards for his work, including the Lasker Award, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

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