Jay Shendure

Jay Shendure is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Lead Scientific Director of the Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing, and Scientific Director of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. He also serves as Lead Scientific Director of the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology, a collaborative initiative launched in December 2023 by the Allen Institute, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the University of Washington.

Dr. Shendure received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School in 2007. His doctoral thesis with George Church (2005) pioneered next-generation DNA sequencing. His research group has developed transformative technologies including exome sequencing for Mendelian disorders and autism, cell-free DNA diagnostics for cancer/reproductive medicine, massively parallel reporter assays, saturation genome editing, whole-organism lineage tracing, and single-cell molecular profiling. Current work focuses on synthetic biology applications for cellular recording in disease contexts.

Recent publications (2022-2025) demonstrate intense focus on single-cell genomic technologies, structural variant analysis, CRISPR-based screening, and novel imaging/recording systems. These works bridge cancer genomics, developmental biology, and neuroscience through advanced molecular tools.

Dr. Shendure has received major honors including:

• Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics (2012)
• Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences (2019)
• Mendel Award from the European Society of Human Genetics (2022)
• Election to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
• Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

He advises the NIH Director, US Precision Medicine Initiative, National Human Genome Research Institute, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and Allen Institutes. His leadership in the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology drives development of cellular recording technologies to decode disease mechanisms over time. His research group maintains strong industry and institutional partnerships supporting large-scale genomic innovation.