John Zuris, PhD

Principal at John Zuris Consulting LLC

Speaker

John Zuris is a leading expert in the gene editing and delivery space, specializing in targeted lipid nanoparticle delivery of mRNA to extrahepatic tissues. He advises clients across the industry in this area, where he sees the strongest current interest surrounding the targeting of T cells for in vivo CAR-T. He was previously the Senior Director of Delivery and Editing Technologies at Editas Medicine, a company focused on using CRISPR gene editing technology to treat patients suffering from severe diseases. John made notable contributions to Editas’ ex vivo sickle cell program, Reni-cel, which showed substantial clinical benefit in all patients in the trial. Due to significant manufacturing challenges and issues with the patient experience of ex vivo sickle cell therapies, his group was tasked with developing an in vivo editing treatment option for sickle cell that may provide clinical benefit to a far broader set of patients globally. Prior to joining Editas Medicine, John completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. David Liu where he developed a lipid nanoparticle delivery system for CRISPR-Cas9 proteins in ex vivo and in vivo applications.