Benefit Ledger · verified · Biology
The Baker lab’s RFdiffusion, published in Nature on 11 July 2023, generated protein backbones whose experimental structures and binding functions, including an influenza HA binder, matched designs.
Current score
+8.45
General, experimentally validated generative design method with wide uptake (tier 4). Attribution shared with RoseTTAFold and wet lab (0.75). Independent adoption plus cryo-EM (0.85). Realization is a working method used broadly, not approved drugs.
Fine-tuning RoseTTAFold as a diffusion model enabled unconditional monomers, binders, oligomers, and motif scaffolding. Hundreds of designs were characterized; a cryo-EM structure of an HA binder closely matched the design model. Open-source code spread quickly. Human specification of targets and experimental filtering remained essential.
Diffusion model that generated backbones later validated experimentally.
Central design engine; sequence design and experiments were additional human/ML steps.
Attribution 0.7500 · Credit share 80% · University of Washington Institute for Protein Design
RFdiffusion designs were experimentally characterized, including a cryo-EM-confirmed influenza HA binder.
outcome · supported
primary sources
Nature · peer reviewed · 11 Jul 2023 · peer reviewed
RosettaCommons · other · 11 Jul 2023
Secondary domains: Medicine & Health, Materials Science
13 Sep 2026 · 0.00 → 8.45
Initial adjudicated seed score under methodology 0.1.