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George Church

Ph.D.

Director, NHGRI Center for Excellence in Genomic Science

Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard and MIT

Founding Core Faculty and Lead, Wyss Institute, Harvard University

Dr. Church  is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a founding member of the Wyss Institute, and Director of PersonalGenomes.org, the world’s only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data. Dr. Church is Director of IARPA & NIH BRAIN Projects, and Director of the National Institutes of Health Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. 

Dr. Church is known for pioneering the fields of personal genomics and synthetic biology. He developed the first methods for the first genome sequence & dramatic cost reductions since then (down from $3 billion to $600), contributing to nearly all “next generation sequencing” methods and companies. His team invented CRISPR for human stem cell genome editing and other synthetic biology technologies and applications – including new ways to create organs for transplantation, gene therapies for aging reversal, and gene drives to eliminate Lyme Disease and Malaria. He has co-authored more than 590 papers and 155 patent publications, and one book, “Regenesis”.

He has received numerous awards including the 2011 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute, the Time 100, and election to the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering.

George Church

Ph.D.

Director, NHGRI Center for Excellence in Genomic Science

Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard and MIT

Founding Core Faculty and Lead, Wyss Institute, Harvard University

Dr. Church  is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a founding member of the Wyss Institute, and Director of PersonalGenomes.org, the world’s only open-access information on human genomic, environmental, and trait data. Dr. Church is Director of IARPA & NIH BRAIN Projects, and Director of the National Institutes of Health Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. 

Dr. Church is known for pioneering the fields of personal genomics and synthetic biology. He developed the first methods for the first genome sequence & dramatic cost reductions since then (down from $3 billion to $600), contributing to nearly all “next generation sequencing” methods and companies. His team invented CRISPR for human stem cell genome editing and other synthetic biology technologies and applications – including new ways to create organs for transplantation, gene therapies for aging reversal, and gene drives to eliminate Lyme Disease and Malaria. He has co-authored more than 590 papers and 155 patent publications, and one book, “Regenesis”.

He has received numerous awards including the 2011 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute, the Time 100, and election to the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering.

Recent Publications

Regulatable C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 in iPSC-derived NK cells improves bone marrow chemotaxis and targeting resident tumor

Published On 2025 May 01

Journal article

iPSC-derived natural killer cells (iNKs) have emerged as a promising cellular therapy, especially for the refractory or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML) patients, but limited research focused on the chemotaxis of iNKs. Here we demonstrate that C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) is significantly reduced in iNKs, resulting in impaired bone marrow (BM) infiltration, which cannot be rescued by constitutively expressed CXCR4 in iPSC due to CXCR4-induced differentiation failure. To...


A diverse single-stranded DNA-annealing protein library enables efficient genome editing across bacterial phyla

Published On 2025 Apr 21

Journal article

Genome modification is essential for studying and engineering bacteria, yet making efficient modifications to most species remains challenging. Bacteriophage-encoded single-stranded DNA-annealing proteins (SSAPs) can facilitate efficient genome editing by homologous recombination, but their typically narrow host range limits broad application. Here, we demonstrate that a single library of 227 SSAPs enables efficient genome-editing across six diverse bacteria from three divergent classes:...