Open Molecular Software Foundation’s OpenFold Consortium Launches Research Fellowship at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Open Molecular Software Foundation (OMSF) today announced a new research fellowship between the OpenFold Consortium and the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design (IPD). Nobel Laureate David Baker is the Director of the IPD, a professor of biochemistry, and HHMI Investigator at UW Medicine. This fellowship is aimed at accelerating the development of open-source artificial intelligence tools for protein structure prediction and design ultimately to be used for new drug discovery.

The fellowship will support graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the Baker Lab. With funding from the OpenFold Consortium fellows will focus on creating new state-of-the-art AI models for antibody-antigen design and structure prediction. Following an approach shared by OpenFold and the IPD, all resulting code from this collaboration will be released under permissive licenses for use by researchers and companies worldwide.

“The AI revolution in biology is built on a foundation of openness — researchers sharing data, code, and ideas freely so that others can build on them,” said Baker. “We’re excited to continue this tradition with OpenFold."

“This collaboration with the Baker Lab marks a defining moment for open biomolecular AI,” said Dr. Woody Sherman, Chair of the OpenFold Consortium Executive Committee and Chief Innovation Officer at PsiThera. “This collaboration brings extraordinary depth across protein design, structure prediction, and large-scale experimental data generation. By building these capabilities as open, shared infrastructure, OpenFold is laying the foundation for a new era of biological discovery where AI models become community resources that accelerate innovation, enable entirely new classes of therapeutics, and deliver impact far beyond what any single organization could achieve.”

As part of this collaboration, the Baker Lab will conduct AI model development. To enhance the longevity and ease-of-use of new software, OpenFold engineers will provide technical support for packaging, documentation, and maintenance. All finished models developed with OMSF fellowship support will be shared publicly under permissive licenses.

About OMSF and OpenFold

The Open Molecular Software Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supporting open, community-driven molecular software. The OpenFold project within OMSF advances open biomolecular AI by enabling shared infrastructure, evaluation, and community resources to accelerate scientific progress. OMSF is modeled after open source consortia in software technology such as the Linux Foundation.

The OpenFold Consortium is supported by a growing community of academic, industry, and philanthropic partners committed to building open scientific infrastructure for the next era of biology. OpenFold welcomes mission-aligned supporters interested in accelerating open innovation in biomolecular AI and drug discovery.

About the UW Institute for Protein Design

The Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington creates new molecules that solve challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Founded in 2012 by Nobel laureate David Baker, the Institute unites and trains experts in AI, biochemistry, medicine, and other disciplines. The IPD is building proteins to improve health, prevent pandemics, eliminate pollution, and organize matter at the atomic scale.