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About Us Our Values

Beam is a values-driven organization committed to its people, cutting-edge science, and a vision of providing lifelong cures to patients suffering from serious diseases. The Beam Team is:

  • a community of fearless innovators
  • rigorous and honest in our research
  • listening with open minds
  • committed to each other

Our Values

Everything we do is driven by our values. They embody our spirit, define how we work, and help us rise to the challenge.

A COMMUNITY OF FEARLESS INNOVATORS RIGOROUS AND HONEST IN OUR RESEARCH LISTENING WITH OPEN MINDS COMMITTED TO EACH OTHER A COMMUNITY OF FEARLESS INNOVATORS RIGOROUS AND HONEST IN OUR RESEARCH LISTENING WITH OPEN MINDS COMMITTED TO EACH OTHER

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

Beach Park

John Evans

Chief Executive Officer and Board Member

Beach Park

John Evans joined Beam in 2017 as CEO, bringing significant experience as a company builder, dealmaker, and drug developer in the biotechnology industry.

Mr. Evans was previously an early employee and member of the leadership team at Agios Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Portfolio Leadership. At Agios, Mr. Evans served as IDH Portfolio Executive, providing strategic and operational leadership for a portfolio of first-in-class IDH inhibitors including IDHIFA and TIBSOVO. He helped initiate and lead Agios’ landmark alliance with Celgene, resulting in over $600M of funding and investments across multiple research collaborations in cancer metabolism. He also co-led Agios’s expansion into rare genetic diseases. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Evans worked at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, McKinsey & Company (Pharmaceuticals practice) and MedImmune.

Mr. Evans holds an M.B.A. in Healthcare Management from Wharton, a Masters in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in English with distinction from Yale University.

Bench

Giuseppe Ciaramella, Ph.D.

President

Bench

Dr. Giuseppe Ciaramella is the President of Beam Therapeutics. Dr. Ciaramella has more than 20 years of drug discovery experience at Moderna, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and Merck.

Throughout his career he has held several leadership roles, with a particular focus in the fields of antivirals, immunology and biotherapeutics. Prior to joining Beam Therapeutics, Dr. Ciaramella was the CSO of the Infectious Diseases division of Moderna Therapeutics, where he was instrumental in generating some of the first mRNA vaccines to be dosed in humans, several of which are progressing through clinical studies. At Boehringer Ingelheim, he served as Vice President and Head of Collaborative Research where he had responsibility for external R&D and was a member of the Research Leadership Team. Prior to Boehringer Ingelheim, he spent 14 years at Pfizer in the UK where he held several Discovery leadership positions, including head of Biotherapeutics, head of Antivirals and head of Lead Discovery.

He has contributed to several clinical candidates, both small molecule and biologics and to the anti-HIV drug Maraviroc (Selzentry TM), which won the USA Prix Galien for Best Pharmaceutical in 2008. He is a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and of the American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT).

Dr. Ciaramella holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University College London.

Gopi Shanker Image For Bio

Gopi Shanker, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Gopi Shanker Image For Bio

Dr. Gopi Shanker is the Chief Scientific Officer of Beam Therapeutics. Dr. Shanker has more than two decades of broad drug discovery experience at Novartis, Amgen and Regeneron ranging from developing target concepts to advancing molecules through clinical development. He has contributed to the development of several clinical candidates and to the migraine drug, Aimovig®. With a strong background across multiple drug modalities including small molecules, biologics and gene therapies, he will bring great experience and leadership to our R&D teams. Dr. Shanker has a proven ability in successfully building, coaching, and developing cross-functional drug discovery teams as well as creating purpose-driven, highly productive research organizations. He is passionate about mentoring individuals and teams towards having high impact.

Dr. Shanker joins us after leading Tevard Biosciences, and prior to that, he was with Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research and during his tenure at Novartis, he held multiple key leadership roles including Head of Neuroscience Disease Area, Head of Psychiatry and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Head, Ion Channels and Receptors.

Dr. Shanker holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, a M.Sc in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University, India, and a B.Sc in Microbiology from Osmania University, India.

Beam Terry Ann Burrell

Terry-Ann Burrell

Chief Financial Officer

Beam Terry Ann Burrell

Terry-Ann Burrell is Chief Financial Officer of Beam. Prior to Beam, Ms. Burrell spent 11 years with J.P. Morgan, most recently as a Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking group. There, she had broad coverage across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, helping to execute over $10 billion in equity and equity linked financings and more than $50 billion in M&A transactions. She was instrumental in advising clients on transaction considerations, including strategic rationale, valuation and structuring, and engaged with more than 100 companies during her tenure. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Ms. Burrell worked in equity research at Citigroup, where she covered specialty pharmaceuticals and generics.

Ms. Burrell holds an MBA from New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a B.A. from Harvard University.

Amy Simon Headshot

Amy Simon, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Amy Simon Headshot

Amy Simon, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer of Beam. Dr. Simon brings more than 20 years of clinical experience to Beam, serving in roles as a physician-scientist in academia and the biotechnology industry.

Dr. Simon joins Beam from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where she spent over a decade in various roles with increasing responsibility for the clinical development of RNAi-based medicines, most recently serving as Vice President, Clinical Development. During her tenure at Alnylam, she led the successful execution of clinical programs from natural history studies to Phase 1 through Phase 4 studies, regulatory interactions with both U.S. and ex-U.S. authorities, and drug approvals in the U.S. and EU. Dr. Simon was the lead clinician developing GIVLAARI® (givosiran) for patients with acute hepatic porphyria, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019. Prior to entering the biotech industry, Dr. Simon worked in academia at Tufts University, serving as a professor and a director of the Asthma Center in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at Tufts University School of Medicine and as a professor at Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Science where her laboratory conducted basic science research on asthma. She began her career in clinical practice, training as a resident in internal medicine and as a fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Tufts Medical Center.

Dr. Simon holds a B.A. in History and Science from Harvard University, and an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine.

113 ORBITAL THERAPEUTICS 2022.10.26 Genevieve De Manio Photography

Susan O’Connor

Chief Human Resources Officer

113 ORBITAL THERAPEUTICS 2022.10.26 Genevieve De Manio Photography

Susan O’Connor is an accomplished executive with progressive and diversified experience in the biotechnology sector. With more than 25 years of experience in human resources, she has made significant contributions in building and leading companies from the initial startup phase and scaling through commercialization. Her expertise includes overall talent management, culture building, strategic recruitment and selection, IPO planning and execution, leadership development as well as board development and engagement. Prior to Beam, Ms. O’Connor launched O’Connor & Associates, a strategic human resources consulting firm, in 2008. She has partnered with several venture capital firms, including Third Rock Ventures, acting as the chief human resources executive for a number of biotech companies, including Celsius Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics, Blueprint Medicines, Voyager Therapeutics and Fulcrum Therapeutics, among others. Prior to launching O’Connor & Associates, Ms. O’Connor was vice president, human resources at Johnson & Johnson, where she also served as a board member for several operating companies within the medical devices sector of the company.

Ms. O’Connor holds a bachelor’s degree from Providence College.

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Christine Bellon, Ph.D., J.D.

Chief Legal Officer

Apr 05 2019 Beam Chris Bellon E1557767687282 450X350

Dr. Christine Bellon is Chief Legal Officer of Beam Therapeutics. She brings to Beam more than 25 years of experience in the life science industry. Prior to joining Beam, she served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Forma Therapeutics, where she built and led a legal team, negotiated changes to the company’s operating structure, and played a key role in negotiations with Forma’s strategic partner. Prior to Forma, Dr. Bellon was Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs for Relay Therapeutics, where she helped obtain foundational partnerships for the company and formulated its intellectual property strategy. Prior to Relay, she served as Vice President of Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary at Blueprint Medicines, where she was instrumental in building its global IP portfolio, securing strategic partnerships and executing its initial public offering. Earlier in her career, Dr. Bellon practiced law and served in legal leadership roles at Hydra Biosciences and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Bellon holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University; a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she did research in the laboratory of K. Barry Sharpless; and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science.

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Brian Riley

Chief Manufacturing Officer

Brianriley

Brian Riley, an experienced leader in operations, quality and manufacturing, is Chief Manufacturing Officer at Beam. Prior to Beam, Mr. Riley spent five years at Catalent Pharma Solutions, initially as General Manager, Biologics and most recently as the Vice President of Operations. There, he helped to cultivate the company’s biologics business, managing five biologics plants supporting the company’s drug substance and products across North America and Europe. Prior to Catalent, Mr. Riley served as the Site Director of Durham, NC operations at bioMerieux, where he led both the company’s compliance remediation effort and global growth platform. Before bioMerieux, Mr. Riley held progressive roles through quality and operations at Biogen Idec, Amgen and Diosynth Biotechnology.

Mr. Riley holds an MBA from Campbell University and a B.S. from North Carolina State University.

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Manmohan Singh, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer

Apr 05 2019 Beam Mano Singh 1 E1556734884360 450X350

Dr. Manmohan Singh is the Chief Technology Officer at Beam Therapeutics. Dr. Singh has more than 24 years of drug discovery and development experience at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Novartis and Chiron Corporation.

Prior to joining Beam Therapeutics, Dr. Singh was the Global Head of Drug Product Development at Takeda Vaccines, where he oversaw the drug product development of all vaccine programs, including Takeda’s dengue vaccine that was in Phase III efficacy study. At Novartis, he served as the Head of Formulation Development for more than 10 years and was instrumental in the licensure of several key vaccines (Bexsero , Fluad, Flucelvax) that were subsequently divested to GSK and CSL. He also led the development of the LNP platform of Novartis’s RNA vaccine. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Singh also spent more than 10 years at Chiron Corporation, where he led the development of Novel adjuvants and delivery systems for vaccines.

Based on his contributions at Chiron and Novartis, Dr. Singh is considered as one of the leading experts in the field of adjuvants and vaccine delivery systems. He has authored six books in this field and has more than 120 publications. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in 2011.

Dr. Singh holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery from the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, India.

Jlo Photo

John Lo, Ph.D.

Chief Commercial Officer

Jlo Photo

John Lo, Ph.D., is chief commercial officer of Beam, where he is responsible for commercial readiness as well as leading product and portfolio strategy of a rapidly maturing and expanding portfolio.  Dr. Lo joins Beam after serving as an advisor to multiple private and public stage biotechnology companies including Beam.  Dr. Lo has held a number of global strategic and operating roles of increasing responsibility within the biopharmaceutical industry, as senior vice president, worldwide hematology at Bristol Myers Squibb, head of global marketing and market access at Astra Zeneca, corporate vice president, hematology and oncology at Celgene, and multiple P&L roles at Novartis.  While at these companies, Dr. Lo has successfully launched numerous drugs in the US and globally, including Tagrisso in lung cancer and two cell therapies.  Dr. Lo has also helped build strategies and grow R&D pipelines as co-chair of the Development Committee at Celgene, leading to multiple pivotal study investments.  Dr. Lo also spent several years as an associate principal at McKinsey & Company and holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kristina Burow

Kristina Burow

Board Member

Kristina Burow

Kristina Burow is a Managing Director with ARCH Venture Partners.

Ms. Burow is focused on the creation and development of biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and agbiotechnology companies. Since joining ARCH in 2002, Ms. Burow has played a significant role in the creation and development of a number of companies. Ms. Burow is a Director of Vividion Therapeutics, Lycera, BlackThorn Therapeutics, Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Metacrine, Scholar Rock, Unity Biotechnology, AgBiome, AgTech Accelerator, and Vir Biotechnology. She previously was a co-founder and Director of Receptos (RCPT – acquired by Celgene). Ms. Burow has participated in a number of other ARCH portfolio companies including Siluria Technologies, Kythera (KYTH – acquired by Allergan), Ikaria (acquired by Mallinckrodt), and was a co-founder and board member of Sapphire Energy.

Prior to joining ARCH, Ms. Burow was an Associate with the Novartis BioVenture Fund in San Diego. As an early employee at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), she directed Chemistry Operations and was active in Business Development where she helped create numerous companies as spin-outs from GNF.

Ms. Burow holds a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a M.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Graham Cooper

Graham Cooper

Board Member

Graham Cooper

Graham Cooper is a member of the boards of directors of other public companies including Unity Biotechnology and Kezar Life Sciences.

Mr. Cooper is focused on financial operations and capital markets strategy. He was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Assembly Biosciences, a biotechnology company developing therapeutics targeting hepatitis B virus. Prior to joining Assembly, he was Chief Financial Officer of Receptos, from 2013 until its sale in 2015 to Celgene.

Previously, Mr. Cooper was the Chief Financial Officer of Geron Corporation, and from 2006 until 2011, served as Chief Financial Officer of Orexigen Therapeutics. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Cooper held positions of increasing responsibility including Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he was responsible for executing and managing a wide variety of financing and merger and acquisition transactions in the life sciences field. From 1992 to 1995, he worked as an accountant at Deloitte & Touche, where he earned his C.P.A. (currently inactive).

Mr. Cooper holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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Mark Fishman, M.D.

Independent Lead Director

Apr 27 2018 Beam Mark Fishman 0002 Crop 450X350

Mark C. Fishman, M.D., is Professor in the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and Chief of the Pathways Clinical Service service at the MGH for patients with complex medical disorders. His current research focus is on the genes that guide social behavior, using genetics of the zebrafish.

In the 1990s, by harnessing the first large-scale genetic screens in zebrafish (performed in collaboration with W. Driever and contemporaneously with C. Nuesslein-Volhard), and by providing much of the early genomic infrastructure, Fishman’s lab helped to make the zebrafish a cornerstone of developmental biology, and led to revelation of many of the pathways that guide vertebrate organ development, particularly the heart and vessels.

From 2002-2016 Fishman was the founding President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). During his tenure, NIBR discovered and brought through successful clinical trials 90 new medicines in more than 120 indications. He brought a particular focus on regenerative medicines as treatments for disorders of aging.

Fishman graduated from Yale College and Harvard Medical School and trained in medicine and Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to his time at NIBR, he was the Founding Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center and Chief of Cardiology at MGH. In addition to his publications in developmental biology and drug discovery, Fishman is the author of the textbook, Medicine, and of Lab, an architecture book on how to design buildings for scientists. Fishman sits on the Executive Committee and Council of the National Academy of Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

2018 Carole 2 1

Carole Ho, M.D.

Board Member

2018 Carole 2 1

Carole Ho currently serves as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development at Denali Therapeutics. Dr. Ho has more than 15 years of life sciences experience as a clinical neurologist, neuroscientist and leader in biopharmaceutical drug development.

Prior to Denali, Dr. Ho served as Vice President of Early Clinical Development at Genentech. In that role, she was responsible for delivery of pivotal trial-ready drug candidates to the Roche / Genentech late-stage development groups in neurology, ophthalmology, immunology and infectious disease. During her eight-year tenure at Genentech, she held positions of increasing responsibility across both the early and late stage clinical development groups with development oversight for multiple therapeutic areas and molecules including crenezumab for Alzheimer’s disease, lampalizumab for dry age related macular degeneration, and development activities leading to the approvals of ocrelizumab for multiple sclerosis and Rituxan for Wegener’s granulomatosis and microscopic polyangiitis.

Prior to Genentech, Dr. Ho was on faculty in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University and subsequently a Medical Director at Johnson and Johnson.

Dr. Ho received her undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and her M.D. from Cornell University. She completed her medical internship and neurology residency at Harvard and served as Chief Resident of Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital / Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Beach Park

John Evans

Chief Executive Officer and Board Member

Beach Park

John Evans joined Beam in 2017 as CEO, bringing significant experience as a company builder, dealmaker, and drug developer in the biotechnology industry.

Mr. Evans was previously an early employee and member of the leadership team at Agios Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Portfolio Leadership. At Agios, Mr. Evans served as IDH Portfolio Executive, providing strategic and operational leadership for a portfolio of first-in-class IDH inhibitors including IDHIFA and TIBSOVO. He helped initiate and lead Agios’ landmark alliance with Celgene, resulting in over $600M of funding and investments across multiple research collaborations in cancer metabolism. He also co-led Agios’s expansion into rare genetic diseases. Prior to joining Agios, Mr. Evans worked at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, McKinsey & Company (Pharmaceuticals practice) and MedImmune.

Mr. Evans holds an M.B.A. in Healthcare Management from Wharton, a Masters in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in English with distinction from Yale University.

Kate Walsh

Kate Walsh

Board Member

Kate Walsh

Kate Walsh is President and CEO of the Boston Medical Center (BMC) health system, a private, not-for-profit, 514-bed, academic medical center with a community-based focus. Prior to her appointment at BMC, Ms. Walsh served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She previously served as the Chief Operating Officer for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in positions including Senior Vice President of Medical Services at the MGH Cancer Center. Prior to her tenure at MGH, she held positions in a number of New York City hospitals including Montefiore, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Saint Luke’s – Roosevelt Hospital Center and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. Ms. Walsh holds a B.A. and a master’s degree in public health from Yale University. She is a member of the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Boston Public Health Commission, the Massachusetts Hospital Association, the AAMC Council of Teaching Hospitals, Pine Street Inn, and Yale University.

Johnm

John Maraganore, Ph.D.

Board Member

Johnm

John Maraganore has served as the founding CEO and a director of Alnylam since 2002, where he has built and led the company from early platform research on RNA interference through global approval and commercialization of the first three RNAi medicines including ONPATTRO®, GIVLAARI®, and OXLUMO®.

Prior to Alnylam, Dr. Maraganore served as an officer and a member of the management team for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., most recently as senior vice president, strategic product development where he was responsible for the company’s product franchises in oncology, and cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases. Before Millennium, he served as director of molecular biology and director of market and business development at Biogen, Inc. At Biogen, Dr. Maraganore invented and led the discovery and development of ANGIOMAX® (bivalirudin) for injection, formerly HIRULOG™ and currently marketed by The Medicines Company. Prior to Biogen, Dr. Maraganore was a scientist at ZymoGenetics, Inc., and the Upjohn Company.

Dr. Maraganore received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the board of Agios Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), where he was Chair from 2017-2019.

C.Shaw Web Headshot

Christi Shaw

Board Member

C.Shaw Web Headshot

Ms. Shaw has more than 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, and most recently served as chief executive officer of Kite, a Gilead company specializing in the development of immuno-oncology therapies until March 2023.

Prior to Kite, Ms. Shaw served as an executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), a global healthcare company, and president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, the business within Lilly that comprises neuroscience and immunology. Before Lilly, she served as U.S. country head and president of Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, a global healthcare company, and in a prior role, as North American region head of Novartis Oncology. Ms. Shaw also held several leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson. She serves as a member of the board of directors of Avantor and is the co-founder of the More Moments More Memories Foundation, which helps people access oncology clinical trials for potentially life-saving treatment.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin.

FOUNDERS AND INVENTORS

David Liu

David R. Liu, Ph.D.

Founder and Inventor

David Liu

David R. Liu is the Richard Merkin Professor and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Dr. Liu graduated first in his class at Harvard in 1994. He performed synthetic organic and bioorganic chemistry research on sterol biosynthesis under Professor E. J. Corey’s guidance as an undergraduate. During his Ph.D. research with Professor Peter Schultz at U. C. Berkeley, Dr. Liu initiated the first general effort to expand the genetic code in living cells. He earned his Ph.D. in 1999 and became Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in the same year. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and to Full Professor in 2005. Dr. Liu became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2005 and joined the JASONs, academic science advisors to the U.S. government, in 2009.

Dr. Liu has earned several university-wide distinctions for teaching at Harvard, including the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize, the Roslyn Abramson Award, and a Harvard College Professorship. He has published more than 150 papers and is the inventor of more than 50 issued patents. His research accomplishments have earned distinctions including the Ronald Breslow Award for Biomimetic Chemistry, the American Chemical Society Pure Chemistry Award, the Arthur C. Cope Young Scholar Award, and awards from the Sloan Foundation, Beckman Foundation, NSF CAREER Program, and Searle Scholars Program. In 2016 he was named one of the Top 20 Translational Researchers in the world by Nature Biotechnology, and in 2017 was named to the Nature’s top 10 researchers in world and to the Foreign Policy Leading Global Thinkers. Dr. Liu’s research integrates chemistry and evolution to illuminate biology and enable next-generation therapeutics. His major research interests include the engineering, evolution, and in vivo delivery of genome editing proteins such as base editors to study and treat genetic diseases; the evolution of proteins with novel therapeutic potential using phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE); and the discovery of bioactive synthetic small molecules and synthetic polymers through DNA-templated organic synthesis. Base editing (named one of four 2017 Breakthrough of the Year finalists by Science), PACE, and DNA-templated synthesis are three examples of technologies pioneered in his laboratory.

Dr. Liu is the scientific founder or co-founder of several biotechnology and therapeutics companies, including Ensemble Therapeutics, Permeon Biologics, Editas Medicine, Pairwise Plants, and Beam Therapeutics.

Keith Juong

J. Keith Joung, M.D., Ph.D.

Founder and Inventor

Keith Juong

J. Keith Joung is a leading innovator in the field of genome editing. He is currently Desmond and Ann Heathwood Research Scholar, Pathologist, and Associate Chief of Pathology for Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He is also a member of the Center for Cancer Research and the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology at MGH.

Dr. Joung has been a pioneer in the development of important technologies for targeted genome editing and epigenome editing of human cells. He has received numerous awards including an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Project R01 Award, the MGH Research Scholar Award, an NIH R35 MIRA (Maximizing Investigators Research Award), election into the American Association of University Pathologists, and designation as a “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2016 and 2017 by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. He serves on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) and the editorial boards of Genome Biology, Human Gene Therapy, and Trends in Biotechnology.

Dr. Joung has co-founded and continues to advise multiple biotechnology companies, including Editas Medicine, Beam Therapeutics, Pairwise Plants and Verve Therapeutics.

Dr. Joung holds a Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard College.

Feng Zhang

Feng Zhang, Ph.D.

Founder and Inventor

Feng Zhang

Feng Zhang is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and the James and Patricia Poitras Professor in Neuroscience at MIT.

Dr. Zhang is a bioengineer developing and applying novel molecular technologies for studying the molecular and genetic basis of diseases and providing treatment. He played a seminal role in developing optogenetics, a powerful technology for dissecting neural circuits using light. Since joining the Broad and McGovern institutes in January 2011, Dr. Zhang has pioneered the development of genome editing tools for use in eukaryotic cells – including human cells – from natural microbial CRISPR systems. He is a recipient of many awards including the Perl/UNC Prize in Neuroscience, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Tang Prize. He has also received technology innovation awards from the McKnight, New York Stem Cell, and Damon Runyon foundations.

Dr. Zhang has co-founded and continues to advise multiple biotechnology companies, including Editas Medicine, Beam Therapeutics, Pairwise Plants and Sherlock Biosciences.

Dr. Zhang received his A.B. in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University.

Nicole

Nicole Gaudelli, Ph.D.

Inventor

Nicole

Nicole Gaudelli received her B.S. degree in biochemistry from Boston College in 2006 where she studied the structural and mechanistic underpinnings of neocarzinostatin biosynthesis and a non-heme iron oxygenase involved in vancomycin assembly. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University where she studied monocyclic beta-lactam antibiotics and elucidated the mechanism through which they are biosynthesized. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the laboratory of Professor David R. Liu where she expanded the capabilities of base editing technology by creating the first adenine base editor (ABE) through 7 rounds of directed evolution and engineering. Both her doctoral and postdoctoral work culminated in prominent Nature publications in the fields of natural product chemistry and gene editing respectively.

Dr. Gaudelli is an inventor on numerous base editing patents and previously led the gene editing technologies platform group at Beam Therapeutics. Dr. Gaudelli is a recipient of the 2018 American Chemical Society’s “Talented 12” award, recognized as a 2018 STAT News Wunderkind, a 2018 TEDMED Hive honoree, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News “Top 10 Under 40 of 2019”, BioSpace’s 2019 “10 Life Science Innovators Under 40 to Watch”, and is MIT’s 2019 Technology Reviews’ 35 Innovators Under 35.

Alexis

Alexis Komor, Ph.D.

Inventor

Alexis

Alexis Komor received her B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in December of 2008. She then joined the lab of Jacqueline K. Barton at the California Institute of Technology for her doctoral studies. While at Caltech, she worked as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow on the design, synthesis, and study of DNA mismatch-binding metal complexes and received her Ph.D. in 2014. Dr. Komor pursued postdoctoral work as a Ruth L. Kirschstein NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of David R. Liu, where she developed base editing, a new approach to genome editing that enables the direct, irreversible chemical conversion of one target DNA base into another in a programmable manner, without requiring double-stranded DNA backbone cleavage. Dr. Komor joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California at San Diego in 2017, where her lab develops and applies new precision genome editing techniques to the functional genomics field.

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Our vision is to create life-long cures through gene-based editing – one letter at a time. Breaking new ground to advance science with the potential to change lives.

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