Omar Abudayyeh

Omar Abudayyeh is a McGovern Institute Fellow at MIT where he directs a lab exploring microbial diversity for developing next-generation cell profiling, molecular diagnostics, gene editing, and gene delivery technologies. These tools, including the popular gene editing system CRISPR, allow for unprecedented manipulation and profiling of cellular states with multiple applications in basic science and for programmable therapeutics and diagnostics. Dr. Abudayyeh also applies many of these tools towards answering fundamental questions about the effect of aging on the brain and other organs with the goal of developing regenerative therapeutics for degenerative disease.

He previously was at Harvard Medical School and MIT as a graduate student in Feng Zhang’s lab at the Broad Institute, where he earned a Ph.D. researching novel CRISPR enzymes for genome editing, therapeutics, and diagnostics. He is also co-founder of Sherlock Biosciences, which is commercializing CRISPR-based diagnostics for healthcare, as well as numerous other stealth starts ups in the gene editing and diagnostics fields. Dr. Abudayyeh has been recognized as Technology Review Innovators Under 35, 2018 Forbes 30 under 30, Business Insider 30 under 30, a 2018 TEDMED Hive honoree, and a 2013 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Dr. Abudayyeh graduated from MIT in 2012 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and biological engineering, where he was a Henry Ford II Scholar and a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar.