Feng Zhang (born 22 October, 1982) :
Zhang is a bioengineer focused on developing tools to better understand the nervous system function and disease. His lab applies these novel tools to interrogate gene function and study neuropsychiatric disorders in animal and stem cell models. Since joining MIT and the Broad Institute in January 2011, Zhang has pioneered the development of genome editing tools for use in eukaryotic cells – including human cells – from natural microbial CRISPR systems. These tools, which he has made widely available, are accelerating biomedical research around the world.
Zhang leverages CRISPR and other methodologies to study the role of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying diseases, specifically focusing on disorders of the nervous system. He is especially interested in complex disorders, such as psychiatric and neurological diseases, that are caused by multiple genetic and environmental risk factors and which are difficult to model using conventional methods. His approaches are also being used in the fields of immunology, clinical medicine, cancer biology, and other areas of research. Zhang’s long-term goal is to develop novel therapeutic strategies for disease treatment.
Although Zhang is well-known for his pioneering work on CRISPR, he is also widely recognized for developing another breakthrough technology called ‘Optogenetics’ with Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University and Edward Boyden, now of MIT. Nature Methods named Optogenetics its 2010 ‘Method of the Year’. Zhang demonstrated the utility of Optogenetics, in which neuronal activity can be controlled with light, by studying neural circuits in the brain.