David Baker

Yeah, it was a wonderful, it's a great question.

Yesterday, I had a very long conversation with the world's experts at CRISPR in Jennifer Doudna's Institute at Berkeley.

And we're going to join forces, just as suggested by that question.

For the problem of sustainable agriculture, we can design new proteins, but then they have to get into the plants.

And

So we can improve, say, plant thermal tolerance.

We can design proteins that in principle could improve plant thermal tolerance or protect against funguses like wheat blight.

But we need to get the proteins in, and CRISPR and the IGI are really experts at that.

So I think this is a perfect time to partner in many areas.

Yeah, I'm a big believer in making everything open.

And I think we find that people build on what we create.

And also, as scientists, really, one of the goals is to really have broad impact.

And the more you share, the more impact there is.

And I think that's also held for the people leaving my group who are starting their own group.

They're now over 100 people.

former graduates and postdocs who left my group to start their own labs in the US and around the world.

And I've encouraged them to keep working in this area.

And so now we have this amazing community.

We have yearly meetings where everyone's working together and everyone meets and shares what they've done.

And things just have moved really, really quickly.