Herman P. Schwan Distinguished Lecture: “Engineering Proteins, Genomes, Viruses & Organs” (George Church, Harvard & MIT)
January 30, 2025 at 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Our exponential technologies for reading, writing genomes and epigenomes combined with AI-ML has enabled large libraries and selections for radical new functions — e.g. resistance to all viruses, novel delivery vectors for gene therapies, xeno-transplantation, de-extinction, and de-aging.
This lecture will be held remotely; zoom link coming soon.
George M. Church, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world’s only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental & Trait data (GET Conference). His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994 . His innovations have contributed to nearly all “next generation” DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This plus his lab’s work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics ( Knome/PierianDx, Alacris, Nebula, Veritas ) & synthetic biology / therapeutics ( AbVitro/Juno, Gen9/enEvolv/Zymergen/Warpdrive/Gingko, Editas, Egenesis ). He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, ELSI, environmental & biosecurity policies. He was director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and 3 NIH Centers for Excellence in Genomic Science (2004-2020). His honors include election to NAS & NAE & Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 716 papers, 156 patent publications & a book (Regenesis).