The Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science (CEGS) program is run by the National Human Genome Research Institute, and supports the formation of multi-investigator, interdisciplinary research teams to develop novel and innovative genomic technologies. Our center was established in 2016 and is led by a team of experienced investigators that are pioneers in developing genome and epigenome editing technologies in various systems.
The Center for Genomic Editing and Recording (CGER) aims to create technologies to enable robust, comprehensive exploration of genes and genetic pathways responsible for human disease in addition to the development of higher-level multichannel molecular recorders that will allow us to track and reconstruct the life history of cells in an in vivo setting.
Collectively, these technologies have profound implications for genome science, therapeutic strategies for somatic disorders, and genetic diseases as well as understanding normal development and disease processes such as tumor evolution and the mechanism of metastases and response to therapeutic challenges.
In addition, we aim to create a vibrant environment in which scholars across educational and socioeconomic levels can engage without barriers, where diverse students at every stage of development will be exposed to novel opportunities for training, research and skill development, and new ideas in a dynamic interdisciplinary research environment.
Develop next-generation genome editing technologies.
Develop next-generation epigenome editing technologies.
Multichannel molecular recorders and functional analyrsis of gene variants.
The Center will be led by a team of experienced investigators with complementary expertise in functional genomics, biochemistry, chemical biology, protein engineering, bioinformatics and medicine, all of whom are pioneers in developing genome and epigenome editing technologies in various systems.
MIT Professor of Biology; Member of Whitehead Institute; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Weissman earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard College in 1988, graduating summa cum laude. He next took on a PhD in physics from MIT, where he studied under biochemist Peter S. Kim, and from 1993-1996 he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale in the lab of Arthur Horwich. For the past 24 years he has held faculty positions in the Departments of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Biochemistry & Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, until joining Whitehead Institute in 2020. He also co-leads the Laboratory for Genomic Research, funded by GlaxoSmithKline, to drive development of CRISPR-based therapeutics.
Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Liu graduated first in his class at Harvard College in 1994. During his doctoral research at U. C. Berkeley, Liu initiated the first general effort to expand the genetic code in living cells. He earned his Ph.D. in 1999 and became assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University in the same year. He was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to full professor in 2005. Liu became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 2005 and joined the JASONs, academic science advisors to the US government, in 2009. In 2016 he became a core institute member and vice-chair of the faculty at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and director of the Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Science Program.
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics; Director, Undergraduate Program in Quantitative and Computational Biology
Britt Adamson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. Adamson started her training in 2004 at MIT in the laboratory of Angelika Amon. She graduated in 2005 and moved to Harvard Medical School for her graduate work. There, advised by Stephen Elledge, Adamson leveraged cutting-edge functional genomics technologies to systematically investigate mechanisms of genome integrity maintenance in human cells. She earned her PhD in 2012. Following graduate school, Adamson joined Jonathan Weissman's lab at UCSF, where she received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
Associate Professor, Department of Data Science, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Institute Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Martin Aryee is an institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, an associate professor in the Department of Data Sciences at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), and director of hematologic malignancies, biostatistics and computational biology at DFCI. He holds a secondary appointment as an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he teaches an introductory course in statistical genetics. Aryee is also a recipient of the Merkin Institute Fellowship at the Broad.
Aryee earned an M.Eng. in electronic engineering at Imperial College London, and an M.Sc. in neuroscience at King’s College London. He earned his Ph.D. in biostatistics from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University
Sam Sternberg earned his B.A. in biochemistry from Columbia University in 2007, where he trained with Professor Ruben Gonzalez, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2014, under the mentorship of Professor Jennifer Doudna. Sternberg was awarded graduate student fellowships from the NSF and DOD, and received the Scaringe Award from the RNA Society and the Harold Weintraub Graduate Student Award from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Sternberg started his independent career in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia in February, 2018, where he is recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, a Pew Scholarship in the Biomedical Sciences, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.
CGER Education + Outreach Manager
Sam Sternberg earned his B.A. in biochemistry from Columbia University in 2007, where he trained with Professor Ruben Gonzalez, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2014, under the mentorship of Professor Jennifer Doudna. Sternberg was awarded graduate student fellowships from the NSF and DOD, and received the Scaringe Award from the RNA Society and the Harold Weintraub Graduate Student Award from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Sternberg started his independent career in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia in February, 2018, where he is recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, a Pew Scholarship in the Biomedical Sciences, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.
The Center will be led by a team of experienced investigators with complementary expertise in functional genomics, biochemistry, chemical biology, protein engineering, bioinformatics and medicine, all of whom are pioneers in developing genome and epigenome editing technologies in various systems.
Co-chair, Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
Amy Wagers is the Forst Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, Senior Investigator in the Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Co-chair of the department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard, an HHMI Early Career Scientist, and a member of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard Medical School. Wagers received her PhD in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis from Northwestern University, and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University.
Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
George is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Technology Center and Director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science. He has received numerous awards including the 2011 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute and election to the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering.
Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University
Stanley Qi obtained B.S. in Physics and Math from Tsinghua University in 2005, and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Qi was a Systems Biology Faculty Fellow at UCSF between 2012-2014, and joined Stanford faculty in 2014. His research focuses on mammalian synthetic biology, epigenetic engineering, immune cell engineering, directed evolution, and novel approaches for gene therapy.
Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF; Director, Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology; Scientific Director of Human Health, Innovative Genomics Institute; Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator
Marson completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, and earned an MPhil in biological sciences from Cambridge. He earned his PhD at Whitehead Institute at MIT, where he worked with mentors Rick Young and Rudolf Jaenisch on transcriptional control of regulatory T cells and embryonic stem cells. Marson joined UCSF in 2012 as an infectious diseases fellow. He started his lab as a Sandler Faculty Fellow, before joining the faculty at UCSF and becoming scientific director of biomedicine at the Innovative Genomics Institute. In 2020, he launched the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology.
