Zhang’s long-term goal is to develop robust therapeutic strategies for disease treatment. In this pursuit, he played a key role in the development of optogenetics while a graduate student at Stanford with Karl Deisseroth, and previously harnessed the bacterial TALE system, including adding nuclease capabilities, for use in mammalian cells to be able to insert optogenetic genes into neurons.
Most importantly, he has leveraged CRISPR, an immune system found only in prokaryotic – bacterial and archaeal – cells, into a broadly customizable toolbox for genomic and epigenomic manipulation in eukaryotic (animal and plant) cells. This toolbox opened the floodgates of biological research, for the first time, allowing researchers to study the role of complex genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying diseases.
While Zhang also focuses also on cancer biology, immunology, and diagnostics for infectious disease, he is interested in addressing brain disorders, especially those associated with complex disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease, that are difficult, and often impossible, to model using conventional methods.
Engineering CRISPR
Soon after joining the McGovern Institute, in February 2011 Zhang learned of the bacterial CRISPR immune system in a talk by Michael S. Gilmore, a Harvard Medical School professor, and with Gilmore’s mention of the word “nuclease”, Zhang immediately recognized the potential in this system and turned his attention to harnessing CRISPR nuclease as a potential tool for use in mammalian cells and for genome editing. On Oct 5, 2012, Zhang submitted a breakthrough paper which reported the first successful programmable genome editing and also the first successful use in mammalian cells of CRISPR-Cas9 (Cong et al. Science 2013). Zhang’s CRISPR technology afforded a method for mammalian genome editing and has had enormous impact on experimental science. This technology also holds great promise for therapeutic applications. His lab continues to refine and improve upon CRISPR technology and to develop novel genome-engineering technologies aimed at perturbing and editing the genome for disease research. Zhang developed a simpler and more precise genome engineering tool known as CRISPR-Cpf1 (since renamed Cas12a) which he has engineered toward targeting a broader swath of the genome and most recently demonstrated a third DNA-targeting system, C2c1 (since renamed Cas12b), affording further options and capabilities for the CRISPR DNA-targeting toolkit. The Zhang lab also developed RNA-targeting systems, including C2c2 (since renamed Cas13a) and Group 29 (since renamed Cas13b). These RNA-targeting systems have been engineered by Zhang for precision RNA and base editing, which would avoid making heritable alterations to the genome. In addition, the Zhang lab used the unique activity of the Cas13 family to develop SHERLOCK, a diagnostic that can detect trace amounts of infectious agents such as Zika virus, and even cancer-linked mutations.
Feng Zhang is a McGovern Investigator, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT and a professor in MIT’s Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and of Biological Engineering. He is also a core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He joined MIT and the Broad Institute in 2011, was awarded tenure in 2016, and became a full professor in 2018. Feng Zhang grew up in Iowa after moving there with his parents from China at age 11. He received his AB in chemistry and physics from Harvard College and his PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. Zhang is a founder of Sherlock Biosciences and the public companies Arbor Biotechnologies, Editas Medicine, and BEAM Therapeutics. He is also a trustee of the non-profit organizations
Society for Science & the Public, Center for Excellence in Education and the
Museum of Science.
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellow, National Academy of Medicine
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
Richard Lounsbery Award, 2021
Edward Novitski Prize, 2021
Regenerative Medicine Foundation’s Pathfinder Award, 2021
PMWC Luminary Award, 2019
Golden Plate Award, 2019
Keio Prize, 2018
Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, 2018
Harvey Prize, 2018
Lemelson-MIT Prize, 2017
Albany Prize, 2017
Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, 2017
Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum, 2017
Tang Prize, 2016
Canada Gairdner International Award, 2016
Okazaki award, 2015
Cell “40 under 40” 2014
Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine, 2014
Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, 2014
NSF Alan T. Waterman Award, 2014
Perl/UNC Prize in Neuroscience, 2012
NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, 2012