Feng Zhang

Feng Zhang is a Chinese-American biochemist and a core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is a pioneer in the development of genome editing technologies, most notably for his foundational work in adapting the CRISPR-Cas9 system for use in eukaryotic cells. Zhang also holds professorships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, where his research focuses on understanding and treating neuropsychiatric disorders.

Early life and education

Born in Shijiazhuang, China, he moved to the United States with his family during his teenage years, settling in Des Moines, Iowa. He demonstrated an early aptitude for science, winning third place in the Intel Science Talent Search while attending Roosevelt High School (Des Moines). For his undergraduate studies, he attended Harvard University, where he majored in chemistry and physics and conducted research in the lab of Xiaoliang Sunney Xie. He subsequently earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University under the mentorship of Karl Deisseroth, where he made significant contributions to the emerging field of optogenetics.

Career and research

Following his doctoral work, he joined the Broad Institute as a core faculty member and began his independent research career. His laboratory quickly became a global leader in developing molecular tools for genome engineering. In 2013, his team published a landmark paper in Science (journal) demonstrating the successful use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system for precise genome editing in human and mouse cells. This work, published concurrently with research from the University of California, Berkeley group led by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, ignited a transformative era in biotechnology. Beyond CRISPR-Cas9, his lab has pioneered other editing systems, including CRISPR-Cpf1 and TALE-based nucleases, and continues to discover novel CRISPR systems from bacteria. His research program also applies these tools to study complex neurological conditions like schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and Huntington's disease in collaboration with institutions like the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research.

Awards and honors

His contributions to science have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards. He received the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation in 2014 and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2015. He is also a recipient of the Gabbay Award, the Perl-UNC Prize, and the Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award. He has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. In 2017, he was included on Time (magazine)'s list of the 100 most influential people.

Patents and commercial ventures

The foundational intellectual property surrounding CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing has been the subject of a major patent dispute, primarily between the Broad Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted key patents to his team for the use of CRISPR in eukaryotic cells. He is a co-founder of several biotechnology companies aiming to translate these technologies into therapies, including Editas Medicine, one of the first CRISPR-based therapeutic companies, and Beam Therapeutics, which focuses on base editing. He also helped found Arbor Biotechnologies to discover novel CRISPR systems.

Selected publications

His highly cited research articles include the seminal 2013 paper "Multiplex genome engineering using CRISPR/Cas systems" in Science (journal) and the 2014 article "Genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screening in human cells" also published in Science (journal). Other key works include "Crystal structure of Cas9 in complex with guide RNA and target DNA" in Cell (journal) and "In vivo genome editing using Staphylococcus aureus Cas9" in Nature (journal). His publications on developing optogenetics tools, such as "The development and application of optogenetics", are also widely recognized in the field of neuroscience.

Category:American biochemists Category:American neuroscientists Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences