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Eric B. Kmiec, Ph.D., is well known for his pioneering work in the fields of molecular medicine and gene editing. Since 2014 he has directed the Gene Editing Institute of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute at Christiana Care Health System.

Under Dr. Kmiec鈥檚 leadership, the Gene Editing Institute has become a leader in gene editing and biomedical research in cancer and other inherited disease. It is the only institute of its kind embedded in a community cancer center where interactions among oncologists, genetic counselors and patients take place. This unique collaboration brings translational cancer research 鈥� from innovative basic science directly to patient treatment 鈥� to an entirely new level.

Throughout his professional career, Dr. Kmiec has led research teams studying the reaction mechanics, biochemistry and molecular genetics of gene editing in human cells. His early work with sickle cell disease led to research and development of the next generation of gene editing tools, including CRISPRs (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and to even more promising variations such as single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides (ssODNs) for the treatment of inherited disorders.

In April 2018, the team announced a major new development in the CRISPR Journal of the first CRISPR gene-editing tool to allow DNA repairs outside the human cell. The new 鈥渃ell free鈥� technology uses a protein called Cpf1 or Cas12a, that allows researchers to make multiple edits to DNA samples quickly and more precisely in vitro, that is, in a test tube or petri dish. This capability has generated unprecedented excitement about developing different CRISPR tools that could produce breakthrough treatments for a wide range of diseases by repairing a damaged gene, modifying it or deleting it entirely.

Thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation in 2017, the Gene Editing Institute is collaborating with Delaware Technical Community College to develop the first-ever gene editing curriculum for community college students in Delaware and across the nation.

Collaborations with public and private partners are working to accelerate the drive to personalized cancer care. They include an agreement in 2017 with Israeli-based NovellusDx that leverages innovative gene editing technology to find gene mutations amenable to customized gene editing treatments for cancer patients, as well as efforts to commercialize an automated chip-based platform for the latest CRISPR/Cpf1 system for use in cancer diagnostics.

In 2016, Dr. Kmeic and colleagues at The Gene Editing Institute described in the journal, Scientific Reports, how they combined CRISPR with short strands of synthetic DNA to greatly enhance the precision and reliability of the CRISPR gene editing technique. The new tool, called EXACT (excision and corrective therapy) serves as both a template and a bandage for repairing a malfunctioning gene.

To accelerate breakthrough cancer research in the human genome, the Gene Editing Institute entered into an agreement with The Wistar Institute in 2016. This partnership integrates the Gene Editing Institute into Wistar鈥檚 Molecular Screening Facility, which will allow its innovative gene editing technologies to be made available to research projects at Wistar and to external users.

Dr. Kmiec is the recipient of multiple research awards from the National Institutes of Health (RO1s, R21s), the American Cancer Society, the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation and other private foundations including the 2012 Proudford Foundation Unsung Hero Award in Sickle Cell Disease. He has been a member of numerous editorial boards, NIH study sections and review boards and is the (primary or corresponding) author of more than 155 scientific publications (mostly in genetic recombination and gene editing).

He holds 18 issued patents, most of which have been licensed by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and has founded two biotechnology companies. He is a senior scientific advisor and SAB member of ETAGEN, a gene editing company located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, centered on the development of therapeutic uses of gene editing.

Dr. Kmiec has been the primary mentor for 18 Ph.D. students and 4 MS students, all of whom have attained scientific positions. He has held or holds major administrative posts on various NIH regional and state biomedical research grants, including IDeA Network of Biomedical Research (INBRE) and Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE). Dr. Kmiec was also honored as the Eminent Scholar in residence at Marshall University (Huntington, West Virginia) in 2009-2011 and was elected as an Honorary Commander of the 436th Air Wing at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware for in 2013 and again in 2014.

Dr. Kmiec earned his B.A. from Rutgers University, his M.S. from Southern Illinois University and his Ph.D. from the University of Florida School of Medicine.

 uses supercomputing and DNA sequencing to solve problems in plant, animal, and human genetics. His current research focuses on how crops are bred and on ways to treat and prevent plant, animal, and human diseases. He is particularly interested in the genetics of crop traits and the genetic and molecular interactions of soybeans with pathogens, pests, and other organisms.
More information: Hudson's research interests center on the use of high-performance computational techniques to pursue questions in genomic biology. His research program focuses on the genomic variants that control trait variation in plants, nonhuman animals and human populations, funded by grants from the NSF, DOE, and USDA as well as private companies, foundations, and commodity boards. He teaches award-winning classes at Illinois on the interface between biology and computing.
Affiliations: Hudson is a professor in the , part of the  (ACES) at U. of I. He is also co-director of the , science integration chair for the  (CABBI), and faculty affiliate at the .

Professor Kris Nyogi is the Associate Chair of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Kris is also a faculty scientist in the Physical Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology at Johns Hopkins University, his master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, and he received his doctorate in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been given multiple awards including: the Howard Hughes Award, the Charles Albert Schull Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, and the Melvin Calvin Award from the International Society of Photosynthesis Research. In 2016, Kris was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 2020, he was recognized by the Web of Science group as 2020's Highly Cited Researchers, an achievement earned by those who have published multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations across 21 disciplines. Kris studies how photosynthetic energy conversion works, how it is regulated, and how it might be improved. His research focuses on the biosynthesis and function of photosynthetic pigments, assembly of photosynthetic reaction centers, structure and dynamics of the photosynthetic membrane, mechanisms involved in sensing excess light, and regulation of photosynthetic light harvesting in saturating light.

Dhruv Patel-Tupper is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and technology Policy (STPF) Fellow and science advisor for the USDA. He works to mainstream solutions to institutionalize climate action across science and trade. He works to ensure that agricultural innovations and international policies at the intersection of agriculture and climate change are evidence-based, scientifically rigorous, scalable, and sustainable. Pattel-Tupper is a former Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) Fellow and postdoctoral researcher in the Niyogi Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his doctorate in plant biology from Berkeley and his bachelor's degree in plant and biological sciences from Cornell University.