Principal Investigator

Jennifer A. Doudna
Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Professor of Biomedical Science

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Jennifer A. Doudna
Principal Investigator

Dr. Jennifer Doudna is a member of the departments of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry at UC Berkeley, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, along with the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Biographical Highlights:

Feel free to use this short bio and picture for announcements.

Postdoctoral Associates

David Colognori 
Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardee
Katarzyna Soczek
Joint with Nogales Lab
Matthew Kan
Pediatric Scientist Development Program Fellow Joint with Jennifer Puck at UCSF
Matthew Kan

Matt is a clinical fellow in allergy and immunology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He has been studying the immune system since he was an undergraduate at Harvard University, where he worked on the role of NKT cells in asthma with Dale Umetsu. He received his MD and PhD in immunology at Duke University in the labs of Carol Colton and Michael Dee Gunn, where he identified a novel immune-mediated mechanism in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease that is being explored in a clinical trial. Matt studied computational immunology during a postdoctoral fellowship with Atul Butte at UCSF and completed his residency training in pediatrics at UCSF. His clinical focus is on inborn errors in immunity and he is designing CRISPR/Cas-based gene therapy for patients with primary immune deficiencies.

Petr Skopintsev
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) postdoctoral fellowship
Erin Doherty
NIH F32 NRSA Fellow
Jason Nomburg

Jason is a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institutes studying SARS-CoV-2 proteins and protein structures. He received his PhD in virology at Harvard, where he studied tumor microbiomes and viral transcriptomes in the labs of James DeCaprio and Matthew Meyerson.

Honglue Shi
Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardee
Amanda Alker
Joint with Rubin Lab
Amanda Alker

Amanda is a postdoctoral scholar working jointly with the Rubin and Doudna lab on the BiomeForge project to develop and apply microbiome editing tools in environmentally relevant microbial communities. As a joint PhD student at San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego, Amanda established genetic tractability in several environmental isolates of marine bacteria important for symbiosis. She is now applying microbial community editing techniques to lignin degrading bacterial communities with support from JBEI. Furthermore, she aims to improve the maintenance and enrichment of successfully edited microbes in this system by establishing methods for positive metabolic selection.

Wayne Ngo
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Wayne Ngo

Wayne is a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences studying the targeting of CRISPR-Cas delivery vehicles. He aims to deliver CRISPR-Cas systems to specific tissues for therapeutic applications. Wayne received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, where he studied the delivery of nanoparticles to solid tumors with Prof. Warren Chan.

Jaymin Patel
Joint with Cress Lab
Jaymin Patel
Conner Langeberg
Joint with Cate Lab
Conner Langeberg

Graduate Students

Brittney Thornton
NSF Fellow and joint with the Savage Lab
Vienna Thomas
Joint w/ Nomura Lab
Muntathar Al-Shimary
NSF Fellow and joint with Savage Lab
Peter Yoon
NSF Fellow
Rithu Pattali
CRCC Fellow and joint with Nuñez Lab
Ron Boger
Ron Boger

Ron is a Biophysics PhD student in the Doudna Lab, interested in computation and biology. Previously, Ron was a research scientist at GoogleX, where he led projects and research spanning life sciences, machine learning, and quantum computing. He helped build the machine learning team at System1 Biosciences, leading the analysis of multi-omics and imaging datasets to identify phenotypes of neuropsychiatric diseases in cerebral organoids. He earned his BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, where he conducted machine learning research as part of the VisionLab and started the nonprofit MedHacks.

Zehan Zhou
Wayne Xue
Joint w/ Schekman
Wayne Xue

Staff

Kaihong Zhou
Lab Manager
510-643-0108
Enbo Ma
Senior Staff Scientist
510-643-0108
Min Hyung Kang
Project Scientist
Min Hyung Kang
Project Scientist

As a senior research scientist, I have extensive biological research experiences in molecular and cellular biology in plants, E. coli, yeasts, viruses, mammalian, and human diseases such as autoimmune, glaucoma and hyperbilirubinemia. This has increased my ability to perform many different types of research approaches. With this vast experience, I have joined Dr. Doudna’s lab as a project scientist in order to accomplish my career goal that is to contribute my experience to improve gene therapy through gene editing such as CRISPR-CAS9.

In this lab, I will focus on the in vivo CRISPR-CAS system by which we will figure out how to deliver our gene therapy complex to tissues/organs, specifically and precisely.

In addition, I have realized that people working together is most important. So I have a motto  ‘work together, make together’ is the best way to move forward and make good progress. Furthermore, I always keep in mind for work progress ‘Let it happen? Make it happen!

Keana Lucas
Operations Manager
Marena Trinidad
Bioinformatician
Daniel Bellieny Rabelo
Bioinformatician
Daniel Bellieny Rabelo
Bioinformatician
Jenny Ye
Technician
Bryant Xu
Technician
Elaine Zhang
Project Manager
Alisha Baldwin
Technician
Alisha Baldwin
Technician
Evan DeTurk
Technician
Evan DeTurk
Technician
Nate Price
Technician
Nate Price
Technician
Anna Vardapetyan
Technician
Anna Vardapetyan
Technician
Kamakshi Vohra
Technician
Kamakshi Vohra
Technician
Rania Materum
Technician
Rania Materum
Technician

Rania as a Research Associate in Doudna’s Lab is thrilled to be working on genome editing technologies. She has received her Master of Biotechnology degree from California State University, Fresno, CA and has seven years of Molecular Biology experience in academia, R&D industry, and clinical laboratory settings. In this position, Rania will have the opportunity to improve the delivery of CRISPR-CAS system in vivo as a gene therapy to tissues and organs

Undergraduate Students

Stephen Jiang
Julia Zhou
Ryan Tran
Alana Yang
Alana Yang

Alana is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley (’25) studying Molecular and Cell Biology with an intended emphasis in Genetics, Genomics, and Development. She grew up in Los Angeles and currently lives in Taiwan, but the Bay Area is her favorite place to live so far.

Arushi Lahiri
Arushi Lahiri
Seyone Chithrananda
Seyone Chithrananda
Rose Du
Rose Du
Kenneth Loi
Kenneth Loi
Alex Men Tong
Alex Men Tong

Hello! My name is Alex Tong and I’m an undergraduate student studying chemistry in a premed-PhD track. I enjoy snowboarding, playing volleyball, and rock climbing!

Visiting Scholars

Alumni

Former Postdoctoral Associates

Name
Time In Lab
Position and Location
Jennifer Hamilton
2018-2023

CEO/CSO, Azalea Therapeutics

Connor Tsuchida
2023-2023

Founding Scientist, Azalea Therapeutics

Abdullah Muhammad Syed
2020-2023

Foundational Scientist, Azalea Therapeutics

Abby Stahl
2019-2023

Therapeutic Editing Advisor, Eli Lilly & Co.

I-Li Tan
2019-2023

Senior Scientist, Evercrisp Bioscience

Ben Rubin
2018-2022

Principal Investigator, Rubin Lab, UC Berkeley

Brady Cress
2017-2022

Principal Investigator, Cress Lab, UC Berkeley

Tina Liu
2015-2021

Senior Scientist, Beam Therapeutics

Enrique Lin Shiao
2019-2021

Senior Associate in Venture Investments, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Patrick Pausch
2019-2021

Investigator, Vilnius University

Gavin Knott
2016-2021

Investigator, Monash University

Haridha Shivram
2019-2021

Bioinformatician, Genentech

Shrutee Jakhanwal
2018-2021

Senior Research Investigator, Syngene

Bastian Minkenberg
2017-2021

Research Scientist, Inari Agriculture

Alexandra Amen
2017-2021

Asset Acquisitions Associate, BridgeBio

Jun-Jie (Gogo) Liu
2016-2020

Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University

Elizabeth O'Brien
2018-2020

Bioscience Sales Specialist for Nikon, Inc.

Audrone Lapinaite
2015-2019

Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Fuguo Jiang
2013-2018

In Memoriam of Fuguo Jiang; Assistant Professor, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Jiang Lab

Kyle Watters
2016-2018

Senior Bioengineer, Arbor Biotechnologies

Christof Fellmann
2015-2018

Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; Staff Research Investigator, Gladstone Institutes

Brett Staahl
2013-2018

Co-founder, Scribe Therapeutics

Chun-Hao Huang
2016-2018

Co-Founder & CEO, Algen Biotechnologies

Natalia Orlova
2017-2018

Process Development Scientist, Grifols Therapeutics

David Burstein
2015-2018

Assistant Professor, Tel Aviv University

Stephen Floor
2011-2017

Assistant Professor, UCSF

Mitchell O'Connell
2013-2017
Romain Rouet
2015-2017
April Pawluk
2016-2017
David Taylor
2014-2016

Assistant Professor, University of Texas, Austin

Emine Kaya
2012-2016
Philip Kranzusch
2012-2016

Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Kranzusch Lab

Nathanael Lintner
2011-2016

Senior Scientist, Pfizer

Yun Bai
2011-2015

Assistant Professor, ShanghaiTech

Steven Lin
2012-2015

Assistant Research Fellow, Academica Sinica

Ross Wilson
2010-2015

Principal Investigator, Wilson Lab, UC Berkeley

Ho Young Lee
2008-2013

Scientist at Genentech

Stefanie Mortimer
2009-2013

Senior Manager, Technology Development at Guardant Health

Aaron Brewster
2010-2013

Project Scientist, Berkeley Lab

Martin Jinek
2007-2012

Assistant Professor, Institute of Biochemistry, University of Zurich

Monika Martick
2011-2012

Scientist, Miroculus

Blake Wiedenheft
2007-2012

Assistant Professor, Montana State University

Dipali Sashital
2008-2012

Assistant Professor, Iowa State University

Andrew Mehle
2005-2011

Assistant Professor, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Sandro Ataide
2006-2008

Lecturer, Molecular & Microbial Biosciences, The University of Sydney

Ryuya Fukunaga
2007-2008

Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Euiyoung Bae
2007-2008

Assistant Professor, Seoul National University

Karin Felderer
2006-2008

Associate Director /Laboratory Leader-Protein Production, MorphoSys AG

Glen Borchert
2007-2008

Assistant Professor, University of Southern Alabama

Si Wu
2005-2008
Director of Research and Development
Suzhou Elite Force Biosciences Co. Ltd.
Wendy V. Gilbert
2004-2008

Associate Professor, MIT

Chris S. Fraser
2003-2008

Associate Professor, UC Davis

Nik H. Chmiel
2002-2007

Staff Scientist, Bio-Rad Laboratories

Ian J. MacRae
2002-2007
Katrin Karbstein
2003-2006

Associate Professor, The Scripps Research Institute

Rich Spanggord
2002-2006

Senior Scientist, Baxalta, Inc.

Ailong Ke
2002-2005

Associate Professor, Cornell University

Li Chen
2001-2005

Sigma-Aldrich, Shanghai, China

Peter Adams
2000-2002

Research Scientist, NIH

Bidya Sagar
2000-2002

Service Architect,Hitachi Consulting

Jeremy M. Murray
1999-2002

Staff Scientist, Genentech

Benoit Masquida
1999-2000

Research Director, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

Jeffrey S. Kieft
1998-2001
Robert Batey
1997-2001
Adrian Ferré-D'Amaré
1995-1999

Lab Head, NIH

Sonia DeMorais
1995-1996

Former Graduate Students

Name
Time In Lab
Position and Location
Connor Tsuchida
2018-2023
Arturo Ortega
2016-2022

Lead Scientist, MaxGene Bioscience

Basem Al-Shayeb
2020-2022
Carolyn Huang
2019-2022

Senior Scientist, Pfizer

Joy Wang
2017-2022

Patent Agent, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Josh Cofsky
2017-2021

Postdoc, Kruse lab, Harvard Medical School

Emeric Charles
2017-2021

Scientist, Scribe Therapeutics

Marco Lobba
2015 -2020

CEO/Co-Founder at Catena Biosciences

Jorge Bardales Mendieta
2014-2018
Addison Wright
2013-2018
Lucas Harrington
2015-2018

Co-founder, Mammoth Biosciences

Janice Chen
2015-2018

Co-founder, Mammoth Biosciences

Steven Strutt
2014-2018

Scientist, Spotlight Therapeutics

Akshay Tambe
2013-2017

Scientist, Spotlight Therapeutics

Benjamin Oakes
2014-2017

Entrepreneurial Fellow, Oakes Lab, Innovative Genomics Institute

Kevin Doxzen
2013-2017

Science Media Communications Innovative Genomics Institute

Alexandra Seletsky
2012-2017
Spencer Knight
2014-2017

Data Scientist Forsite Capital

Megan Hochstrasser
2012-2016

Communications Manager Innovative Genomics Institute

James Nunez
2012-2016

Postdoc, Weissman lab, UCSF

Stephen Wilson
2012-2016

Postdoc, Susan Lindquist lab, MIT

Sam Sternberg
2009-2015

Assistant Professor, Columbia University

Mary Anne Kidwell
2009-2014

Consultant, Boston Consulting Group

Cameron Noland
2007-2012

Senior Scientific Researcher, Genentech

Mark Luskus
2011-2012

Freelance Marketer, Boulder Colorado

Rachel Haurwitz
2008-2012

President/CEO, Caribou Biosciences

Bryan Clarkson
2007-2011
Katherine Berry
2006-2011

Assistant Professor, Mount Holyhoke College

Amy Weeks
2008

Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSF

Fai Y. Siu
2003-2008

Postdoc. Research Assoc., R. Stevens Lab, Scripps Research Institute

Eric M. Friedman
2004-2007
Adrian Repic
2003-2006

Resident, Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Radiology

Bunpote Siridechadilok
2002-2006

Research Scientist, Siriraj Hospital, Thailand

Dennis Lullo
2003-2005

Quality Engineer II, Lifecell

Lisa Valdin
2002-2005

Director of Marketing Azure Biosystems, Inc

Kristi Pullen
2001-2002

Staff Scientist, Health Program National Resources Defense Council

Angie Grech
1999-2001

Global Director of Customer Success, LinkedIn Learning

Miguel Talavera
1998-2002

Scientist-Process Development-Attribute Sciences Amgen , Yale U.

Robert Rambo
1997-2003

Principal Beamline Scientist Diamond Light Source, Yale U.

Andrej Luptak
1997-2002

Associate Professor, UC Irvine

Lan Zhang
1997-2002

Principal Scientist, Merck & Co., Inc.

Daniel Battle
1996-2002

Asst. Professor, Ohio State University

Rebecca Hanna
1996-2000

Owner and Proprietor, MadeWithMolecules.com

Elizabeth Doherty
1995-2000

Technical Specialist, Washington DC

Jamie Cate
1994-1997

Prof., UC Berkeley