leader cryo-em computational software-dev
UTHealth Houston (was Baylor College of Medicine / NCMI)
Info
Assistant Professor at UTHealth (The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Earned his PhD in Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine, where he worked at the National Center for Macromolecular Imaging (NCMI) during Wah Chiu’s directorship. Now leads the UTHealth contribution to PHENIX, focused on computational cryo-EM tools - model building, map segmentation, and validation at the resolution boundaries where cryo-EM meets MX methodology.
Handoff context
Baker is an example of the cryo-EM revolution generational handoff from the Baylor NCMI training environment into an independent faculty position leading cryo-EM tools integration in PHENIX. He bridges the Houston cryo-EM community (historically centered on Chiu and Ludtke’s NCMI) and the PHENIX software consortium.
Key Relationships
- Wah Chiu — NCMI director during Baker’s Baylor PhD years
- Steven Ludtke — Baylor NCMI colleague and EMAN2 lead
- Paul Adams — PHENIX consortium lead
- PHENIX Consortium — UTHealth site (cryo-EM tools)
- wwPDB task force-EM Validation participant
Sources
- PHENIX team page: https://phenix-online.org/people
- UTHealth faculty profile: https://med.uth.edu/bmb/2022/11/03/matthew-baker-phd/