David R. Liu

David R. Liu is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and the Richard Merkin Professor at the Broad Institute. He serves as a principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare. His laboratory pioneers revolutionary genome editing technologies with profound implications for basic research and therapeutic development.

Liu's research spans multiple disciplines at the intersection of chemistry and biology:

• Organic Chemistry
• Chemical Biology
• Biochemistry
• Genetic Engineering
• Genome Editing Technologies

He pioneered base editing and prime editing techniques that enable precise DNA modifications without creating double-stranded breaks, overcoming key limitations of traditional CRISPR-Cas9 systems. His work on DNA-templated synthesis and phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE) has transformed protein engineering and drug discovery approaches.

Liu's contributions have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards:

• ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (2006)
• Election to National Academy of Medicine (2020)
• Election to National Academy of Sciences (2021)
• King Faisal Prize (2022)
• Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2025)

As an entrepreneur, Liu has co-founded multiple biotechnology companies including Editas Medicine, Beam Therapeutics, and Prime Medicine to translate his discoveries into therapeutic applications. His laboratory continues to advance genome editing technologies while developing novel approaches to treat genetic diseases through precise DNA modifications.