Community Newsletter
April 2026 - 19th Edition
Catch-Up With Jeff
Where in the world did Jeff visit? Keep reading to find out!
For most of March and April, I kept things closer to home. Luckily, the National Society of Black Engineers held their annual convention here in Baltimore, Maryland on March 18 - 22, 2026. I was able to help out at a booth and reception hosted by John Hopkins University spreading the word on protein design. Hopefully we do get some new interest in our field.
I’d also like to send out a congratulations to our current and former RaMP and REU students who were recently selected for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program award. This is a wonderful accomplishment. I wanted to recognize:
- Current RaMP Trainees: Nicolas Langdon, Raksha Pradeep, & Miranda Simpson
- Former RaMP Trainee: Ali Mobedi
- Former REU Interns: Dawning (Jiajia) Fu, Samantha Schulte, & Richard Zhu
I also wanted to extend my pride to all of our current and former RaMP and REU participants who applied for the award - including formulating a research plan and a personal statement around their career journey. I cannot wait to see what all of our promising students do in the future.
Lastly, Summer RosettaCon registration is closing soon. If you haven’t had a chance to register yet, know that registration closes May 15. I look forward to catching up more in Seattle for those who can attend and meeting some new faces.
Cheers,
Jeff
Latest News
ML Protein Design Bootcamp Now Available on YouTube
This course provides a practical, beginner-friendly overview of modern AI/ML tools for protein structure prediction and design, including AlphaFold, ESMFold, ProteinMPNN, and RFdiffusion, along with the workflows that connect them. We’d like to thank the course instructors Ian Anderson (UC Davis), Ben Orr (UCSF), and Mary Reilly (UC Davis) for putting this course together and sharing it with the community.
Deep Learning’s Impact on de novo Protein Design
Propelled by advances in deep learning and de novo design, protein engineering is pivoting from a structure-orientated focus toward function-oriented challenges, such as designing for neosurfaces and conditional binding with biological stimuli.
Next Generation Generative Model Unlocks de novo Designs at Scale
NVIDIA’s new Proteina-Complexa model combines generative AI with inference-time search algorithms to operate 30-60x faster than RFdiffusion when designing custom proteins that target specific diseases.
Upcoming Events
Summer RosettaCon 2026
Registration Closes May 15
Theme: Biomolecule Engineering: From Principle to Practice
Dates: August 3 - 7, 2026
Location: University of Washington, Seattle, WA
How To Train Your Model Hackathon
Application Deadline May 1
Topic: A project-based learning experience for moving beyond "out-of- the-box" machine learning models.
Dates: August 2 - 8, 2026
Location: University of Washington, Seattle
European RosettaCon 2026
Early Bird registration closes May 31
Theme: Crossing Boundaries with Protein Design
Dates: October 28 - 30, 2026
Location: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Membership Spotlight
Bruno Correia. Ph.D.
Full Professor
Laboratory of Protein Design & Immunoengineering, EPFL
Co-organizer of European RosettaCon 2026
Rosetta Community
The stability of the Rosetta Commons community is one part he greatly values. The community developed and has maintained a standard of excellence and openness in science that makes scientific practices better, an aspect which has been formative in his career. “Something the community has taught me is that working with other people is the only way to go,” he said.
About Bruno
Native to Portugal, Bruno majored in chemistry before receiving a fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. anywhere in the world. He ended up in David Baker’s lab and was co-advised by Bill Schief. Wanting to work in protein structure and prediction, he was introduced to protein design while at the University of Washington and never looked back. He completed a postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute before joining the faculty at EPFL 11 years ago. In his free time, Bruno loves to enjoy the intersection of science and art, often finding parallels between the two while enjoying live music. He tries to see a local band everywhere he travels. He also enjoys spending time outside and playing sports.
“If there is a problem you want to work on, do it, because that passion helps to push science beyond the status quo.”
Scientific Endeavors
“My work is completely unfocused,” said Bruno, and that’s a good thing. He praises and values his scientific freedom as it allows for creativity in his research as he strives to push the boundaries of what can be done in protein design. His lab is focused on the development and use of computational tools for the design and engineering of proteins, with the aim to develop new protein-based therapeutics, vaccines, biosensors and more.
“Don’t get discouraged. At first glance everything may seem to have been solved, but if you look again, you might just find some new questions that need answers.”
Announcements
Let’s Get Social: New Ways to Connect with @RosettaCommons
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Rosetta Commons Jobs
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