Abstract:The Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington is a pioneering local and state-supported non-profit scientific research institution. Since its establishment in 2012, IPD has seized the opportunity of AI for Science and open science, and continuously enhanced its capabilities of fundamental innovations, breakthrough technologies, and industrial impact. We summarized five factors contributing to IPD’s development, including focusing on the cutting-edge issues of basic scientific research to gain a firstmover advantage and then further expand, integrating AI-enhanced digital tools and solid experimental validations, facilitating the integrated development of innovation and industrial chains, giving full play to the role of strategic scientists, and creating an open and sharing atmosphere for talents. While drawing on its experience, we suggest that China can make use of the new national system to enhance the development of new life sciences R&D institutions in four aspects: strengthening top-level design and institutional frameworks, seizing the opportunities of technological transformation, highlighting market-oriented convergence of innovation elements, and adhering to a people-oriented and lenient environment, in order to support life sciences self-reliance and selfstrengthening at higher levels.