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Cancer Institute Seminar Series - Prof George Church
20 April 2020, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm
Professor George Church, Harvard Medical School, presents: 'Genome recoding for resistance to all viruses.' This is an online event.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Organiser
-
Veronica Dominguez
Hosted by: Professor Stephan Beck
The cost (and quality) of reading and writing biopolymers has improved 10 million fold recently and continues to improve. One component of this, multiplex editing, has proven value for CAR-T and CAR-M therapies, for xenotransplantation, and de-extinction. The most complex, extensive and impactful application is genome wide codon-recoding. This enables multiple novel amino acids, biocontainment and permanent resistance to all viruses currently in the biosphere (even those we have never noticed previously). We have proven this strategy in one species of industrial microbe and are moving toward other microbes, plants, animals, and human cells.
Seminar catch up
If you missed the the live seminar, a recording is available:
Main image: Prof George Church, credit: Wyss Institute, Harvard Medical School
About the Speaker
Prof George Church
at Harvard Medical School
George leads Synthetic Biology at the Wyss Institute, where he oversees the directed evolution of molecules, polymers, and whole genomes to create new tools with applications in regenerative medicine and bio-production of chemicals. Among his recent work at the Wyss is development of a technology for synthesizing whole genes, and engineering whole genomes, far faster, more accurate, and less costly than current methods. George is widely recognized for his innovative contributions to genomic science and his many pioneering contributions to chemistry and biomedicine. In 1984, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). He helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 and the Personal Genome Project in 2005. George invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and array DNA synthesizers. His many innovations have been the basis for a number of companies including Editas (Gene therapy); Gen9bio (Synthetic DNA); and Veritas Genetics (full human genome sequencing).