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Robert Baldwin Dies

Robert Baldwin, a biochemist who studied protein folding at Stanford University School of Medicine, has died, The Scientist reports. He was 93.

As The Scientist notes, Baldwin — who was known as 'Buzz' — spent most of his career at Stanford, joining its newly established biochemistry department in 1959 and became an emeritus professor there in 1998, though he continued with his research until fairly recently.

That research focused on determining how proteins formed complex, three-dimensional structures from a string of amino acids, a press release from Stanford notes. It adds that Baldwin used a number of techniques to find that the protein folding process was helped along by the formation of transient, intermediate structures.

"Buzz Baldwin was an outstanding scientist renowned for deep, penetrating thought," Lloyd Minor, dean of the medical school, says in a statement. "His discoveries laid the groundwork for our understanding of how a newborn protein accurately folds up into its adult shape within milliseconds — an insight that's informed molecular biology ever since."

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