The Baker Lab Podcast

Yuliya Politanska’s path to science began with onion cells and a microscope in her hometown of Chernivtsi, Ukraine. As a teen, she moved to the U.S. and grew comfortable speaking English only after propping a dictionary right next to her textbooks. Now a third-year PhD student in the lab, Yuliya is designing custom proteins that bind to DNA to control how cells behave—work that could one day help repair diseased or damaged tissue. ...

Centuries ago, explorers set sail across vast oceans. Today, scientists like Alexis Courbet are navigating uncharted waters at the nanoscale. As a researcher at the Institute for Protein Design, Alexis is building molecular machines unlike any seen before—creating nanoscale sensors and protein-based rotors that move with atomic precision. Whether designing molecules or mapping out his next mountaineering adventure with David Baker,...

Winning a Nobel Prize is a rare and extraordinary achievement—but what happens behind the scenes? In this episode, David Baker takes us inside his journey to Stockholm, from preparing his Nobel lecture to delivering it on science’s biggest stage. Hear clips from practice talks, reflections from trainees who were there, and David’s thoughts on what the prize really means. But that’s only half the story. The second half of this episo...

Jeremiah Sims is trying to stop the next pandemic. As an MD/PhD trainee with a deep passion for public health, his research with David Baker focuses on outsmarting viruses. But there's more to Jeremy than lab work. When he's not creating new antivirals, he's making music and building up Black communities. In this episode, hear how Jeremy faced down racism in school, found his path into medical research, and enriched his life—and th...

Susana Vazquez Torres embodies courage. Born in Mexico, she moved to a big city to study science — and then crossed continents twice to advance her studies. Unfamiliar cultures, language barriers, and imposter syndrome were all part of her journey. But with support from labmates and others, Susana found her footing and joined the Baker Lab for her PhD studies. Here, she’s used AI to create antitoxins for snakebites. These pioneerin...

Born a Palestinian refugee, Mohamad Abedi didn’t have the luxury of exploring science as a kid. But at 17, when he unexpectedly immigrated to the United States, he discovered that learning could be a creative and transformative process. This led him to pursue degrees in biomedical engineering and eventually to his current research on cellular communication and drug development as a postdoctoral scholar in the lab. In this episode, ...