Lynda Stuart, MD, PhD

Lynda Stuart, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist with over 20 years of experience in immunology, global health, and product development. An advocate for leveraging cutting-edge technologies to solve global health and societal challenges, she serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In this role, she oversees translational research, institute operations, and collaborations with corporate and foundation partners. The IPD uses computational approaches to create proteins that address modern challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability.

From 2013 to 2022, Dr. Stuart was the Deputy Director for Vaccines & Biologics at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She oversaw the preclinical development of vaccines—including mRNA vaccines—and antibody therapies targeting urgent global health issues. Following the Ebola outbreak, she contributed to conceptualizing “just-in-time” platform approaches for pandemic responses. Between 2020 and 2022, she led the foundation’s COVID-19 discovery and translational vaccine response efforts, managing a significant portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 and pan-coronavirus vaccine candidates, including the IPD’s computationally designed COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione, and guided its development and approval. After leaving the Gates Foundation, she spent a year as Vice President of Infectious Disease at BioNTech, an mRNA company.

Dr. Stuart earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Cambridge, her medical degree from the University of London, and a PhD in microbiological sciences and immunology from the University of Edinburgh. From 2003 to 2013, she was a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and an affiliate of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She is currently an acting professor in the Department of Biochemistry at UW Medicine and a member of the Science and Technology Expert Group of the 100 Day Mission.