He says, “In a similar way, we’ve been working for a number of years to uncover the fundamental principles of protein folding and encoding those principles in the computer programme called Rosetta. We made a breakthrough in recent years. We can now design completely new proteins from scratch on the computer. Once we’ve designed the new protein, we encode its amino acid sequence in a synthetic gene. We have to make a synthetic gene because since the protein is completely new, there’s no gene in any organism on earth which currently exists that encodes it.”

Baker’s audacious idea is to pull biology out of the Stone Age through technological revolution in protein design. He refers to the open and conducive collaborative environment nurtured by Bell Labs, to make his case.

The Labs which was home to the invention of the transistor, laser, satellite communication and the foundation of the Internet, has gone on to inspire Baker, who dreams of building the Bell Labs of protein design. Some of Baker’s ideas include, taking proteins from flu strains from around the world and putting them on top of the designed protein particles to make a universal flu vaccine, one shot of which gives a lifetime of protection against the flu.

He also is working towards building advanced delivery vehicles to target existing medications exactly where they need to go in the body – chemotherapy to a tumour or gene therapies to the tissue where gene repair needs to take place. Baker’s team now designing smart therapeutics too that can do calculations within the body and ‘go far beyond current medicines, which are really blunt instruments.’