The CRISPR revolution: Changing life

Venki Ramakrishnan has a long-standing interest in ribosome structure and function. In 2000, his laboratory determined the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and its complexes with ligands and antibiotics. This work has led to insights into how the ribosome “reads” the genetic code, as well as into various aspects of antibiotic function. In the last few years, Ramakrishan’s lab has determined the high-resolution structures of functional complexes of the entire ribosome at various stages along the translational pathway, which has led to insights into its role in protein synthesis during decoding, peptidyl transfer, translocation and termination. More recently his laboratory has been applying cryoelectron microscopy to study eukaryotic and mitochondrial translation. Since 1999, he has been on the scientific staff of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and he is currently President of the Royal Society.

As an internationally renowned professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley, Doudna and her colleagues rocked the research world in 2012 by describing a simple way of editing the DNA of any organism using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria. This technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, has opened the floodgates of possibility for human and non-human applications of gene editing, including assisting researchers in the fight against HIV, sickle cell disease and muscular dystrophy. Doudna is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

Helen Sang received a degree in Natural Sciences and PhD in genetics from Cambridge University. She continued developing a research career with fellowships held at Harvard and Edinburgh universities and was then appointed as Principal Investigator at The Roslin Institute, now part of the University of Edinburgh. Her main research focus at The Roslin Institute has been the development of technologies for genetic modification of the chicken, which are applied in basic biomedical research, biotechnology and investigating the potential for developing disease resistance in production chickens. Her research has been supported by the BBSRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust and industry. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wendy is a Senior Scientist at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. Her group works on the genetic modification and genome editing of crop plants including wheat, barley and Brassicas. The group uses genetic modification and CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing as tools to better understand genes important in the development of improved agricultural crops. As well as focusing on developing improved technologies for crop engineering, the group has a particular interest in engineering drought tolerance in cereals. Wendy’s group is also responsible for the BRACT facility that is providing crop genetic modification and gene editing resources to the research community (www.bract.org). Wendy is active in public engagement and she is also an Honorary Lecturer at the University of East Anglia. 

Joyce Tait has an interdisciplinary background in natural and social sciences. Her research covers agrochemical, pharmaceutical and life science industry sectors, particularly: strategic planning for innovation; governance, risk management, regulation and standards; and stakeholder attitudes and influences. The focus has been particularly on genetic modification and synthetic biology, genetic databases, pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine, stratified and translational medicine and cell therapies. 

Current projects include: ‘Proportionate and Adaptive Governance of Innovative Technologies’ with the British Standards Institution; BBSRC-funded Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology; EPSRC funded project ‘Implantable Microsystems for Personalised Anti-Cancer Therapy’; and ESRC-funded ‘Regenerative Medicine and its Development and Implementation’. 

Among current appointments are: UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Synthetic Biology Leadership Council (and Chair of its Governance Subgroup); Scientific Advisory Board, John Innes Centre; Board member, Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre; Board member, Roslin Foundation.

Waseem Qasim is Professor of Cell and Gene therapy at the Institute of Child Health, and a consultant immunologist at Great Ormond Street hospital, supported by the National Institute of Health Research. He trained in Immunology and Medicine, and then specialised in Paediatrics before PhD research at University College London. He is researching blood and marrow stem cell transplantation and the application of T cell therapies for cancer and infection. Waseem heads a research group developing gene based therapies, from basic laboratory development, through GMP manufacturing and into first-in-human trials. His group has a strong focus on lentiviral technology and gene-editing tools including TALENs and CRISPR/Cas reagents for novel therapeutic applications.

Charlie joined Editas Medicine as Chief Scientific Officer in August 2016. He brings more than 25 years of life sciences industry and academic leadership experience, most recently serving as vice president of genetically defined diseases and genomics at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Over his career, Charlie has led discovery programs that advanced investigational medicines into clinical development in a wide range of therapeutic areas, including neurodegeneration, pain, psychiatry, oncology and inflammation. Prior to his position as vice president of genetically defined diseases and genomics, he held multiple scientific leadership roles in neuroscience biology at BMS. Previously, he held positions at Incyte Corporation and DuPont Pharmaceuticals and was an assistant professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt University. Charlie received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.

Mohammad received his PhD degree in physiology from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), where he generated transgenic mice and studied for metabolic, cardiovascular and CNS related phenotype. Mohammad joined AstraZeneca R&D Sweden in 2001 as senior research scientist to build an in vivo phenotyping platform for transgenic animals. Since joining AstraZeneca, he had various positions and responsibilities (e.g. lead for in vivo team, transgenic team, iPS and stem cell team at Discovery science). In early 2017 he was promoted to director to lead the Translational Genomic department at Discovery Sciences in Gothenberg.

Mathew Garnett, PhD leads the Translational Cancer Genomics laboratory and Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer Project at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge UK. He aims to understand how genetic changes contribute to cancer and to identify molecular biomarkers that will improve the development of new cancer therapies using high-throughput chemical and genetic screens in cancer cell lines and organoids. Mathew is also a member of the scientific leadership team for Open Targets which aims to use genome-scale experiments and analysis to evaluate new therapeutic targets.

After obtaining a BSc in Biochemistry (Hons.) at the University of British Columbia, Canada, Mathew completed his PhD with Professor Richard Marais at the Institute of Cancer Research (London, UK) on the characterisation of BRAF as a cancer gene. In 2005 Mathew moved to the laboratory of Professor Ashok Venkitaraman (Cambridge, UK) for his post-doctoral research, where he discovered a new regulator of cell division. Mathew joined the Sanger Institute in 2009. Contact: mg12@sanger.ac.uk.

Robin Lovell-Badge obtained his PhD at University College London in 1978 and was a postdoc in Cambridge, both with Martin Evans. After an EMBO fellowship in Paris he established his independent laboratory in 1982 at the MRC Mammalian Development Unit, UCL, directed by Anne McLaren. In 1988 he moved to the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, becoming Head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics in 1993. The NIMR was incorporated into the Francis Crick Institute in April 2015. In 1990, his lab discovered Sry, the Y-linked sex determining gene and the first members of the Sox gene family. He has had long-standing interests in the biology of stem cells, in how genes work in the context of embryo development, and how decisions of cell fate are made. Major themes of his current work include sex determination, development of the nervous system and pituitary, and the biology of stem cells within these systems. He is also very active in both public engagement and policy work, notably around stem cells, genetics, human embryo and animal research, and in ways science is regulated and disseminated. He chairs the Royal Society’s Genetic Technologies Programme and has been involved in the human genome editing Summit meetings since their inception. He was elected a member of EMBO (1993), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), the Royal Society (2001), the Royal Society of Biology (2011), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2018). He has received the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1995), the Amory Prize (1996), the Feldberg Foundation Prize (2008), the Waddington Medal of the British Society for Developmental Biology (2010), the ISSCR Public Service Award (2021), and the Genetics Society Medal (2022). He was awarded a CBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List. He is an honorary professor at University College, London and at King’s College, London, and a Special Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Sarah Chan is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics, and Deputy Director of the Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and Law, University of Edinburgh. Previously, from 2005 to 2015, she was a Research Fellow in Bioethics at the University of Manchester, first at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy and from 2008 the Institute for Science Ethics and Innovation, where she was Deputy Director. Sarah’s previous research in interdisciplinary bioethics has focused on the ethics of new biomedical technologies, including stem cell and embryo research; reproductive medicine; synthetic biology; gene therapy and genetic modification; and human and animal enhancement.  Her current work draws on these interests to explore the ethics of emerging modes of biomedicine at the interface of health care research, medical treatment and consumer medicine including population-level health and genetic data research; the use of biomaterials in both research and treatment; and access to experimental treatments and medical innovation.

Mark is Founder & Director of Science Policy Compass Ltd. a new consultancy offering science policy support and advice on a range of bioethical topics. His current interest areas include: Biosector reputation; Access to human biological samples for research use including donor and patient consent and privacy; Precise genome editing /gene therapy ethics; Nagoya Protocol - access and benefit sharing. 

Until August 2016, Mark was Director in the Global Policy & Corporate Responsibility team in Corporate Affairs, AstraZeneca with 7 years dedicated science policy experience.  As Chair of the AstraZeneca Bioethics Advisory Group, he was responsible for evolving the AstraZeneca Global Bioethics Policy and strategy. 

Educated at Southampton University, UK and University of Chicago, USA, Mark is a PhD pharmacologist (>50 peer-reviewed publications) and with 30 years Big Pharma experience mostly in novel medicine project delivery.