Neil King named Deputy Director of UW’s Institute for Protein Design

The Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington has announced new leadership updates. Neil King, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, has been appointed Deputy Director of IPD. Meanwhile, Lance Stewart, formerly Interim Executive Director (and earlier Chief Strategy & Operations Officer), is retiring from the organization. The Institute’s longtime Director, David Baker continues in his role as IPD’s director. 

King brings a strong track record: he studied biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, completed his PhD under Todd Yeates at UCLA, and did post-doctoral work in the Baker Lab at IPD. His research group focuses on computational design of self-assembling protein nanomaterials for medical applications such as structure-based vaccine design and biologics delivery. He is also a scientific co-founder of Icosavax, which was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2024.

Stewart reflected on his time at IPD in a LinkedIn post:

“When I joined the IPD in 2013, it was clear that helping to build the IPD would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute and observe firsthand the development of a whole new industry based on computationally designed proteins.” 

With King stepping into this deputy director role, IPD appears positioned to expand its translational impact and continue advancing the frontier of computational protein design.