Team
Our team of world-class scientists, builders and operators use their deep industry expertise to power the creation of life-transforming genetic medicines.
Meet Our Team of Industry Experts at Life Edit
Leadership
Shaorong (Ron) Chong, Ph.D.
VP, Gene Editing, Technology Development
Joel Parker, Ph.D., M.S.
VP, Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
ElevateBio Leadership
Life Edit is ElevateBio’s business focused on advancing next-generation gene editing technologies. Learn more about the ElevateBio leadership team.
Scientific Advisory Board
Joy A. Cavagnaro, Ph.D., DABT, Fellow ATS, RAC, FRAPS
President and Founder of Access BIO
Read Joy A. Cavagnaro, Ph.D., DABT, Fellow ATS, RAC, FRAPS’s Bio
Ben Kleinstiver, Ph.D.
Asst. Professor, Harvard Medical School, Asst. Investigator, Massachusetts General Hospital
Rahul M. Kohli, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Penn Scholar in Molecular Medicine Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Research Team
Technology Development
The Technology Development group at Life Edit discovers novel genome editing systems, and engineers a wide spectrum of editing modalities to support development efforts for in vivo and ex vivo gene edited therapies. Specifically, our team works closely with Computational Biology team to identify and validate novel enzymes and systems from our large collection of metagenomic protein databases. Leveraging protein language models and machine learning, we design smart libraries and engineer gene editing systems with desired properties such as high activity and stringent specificity through directed evolution and high-throughput screening.
We understand the importance of discovering and advancing new technologies and strive to stay cutting edge as the pharmaceutical and biotech industry is constantly evolving. The technology development group has played an important role in transforming the way drugs are discovered, developed, and delivered to patients.
Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
Computational Biology & Bioinformatics at Life Edit supports protein discovery, engineering, and therapeutic optimization to produce genetic medicines. We leverage a vast protein catalog constituting a harmonized collection of isolated organisms and metagenomes to identify novel proteins. We employ generative and structural AI toward in-silico screens and to facilitate protein design. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of amplicons, whole genomes, and whole transcriptomes then drives decision making to optimize safety and efficacy. With state-of-the-art computational resources and expertise, their integration with high-throughput laboratories drives the development of safe and efficacious genetic medicines.
Genome Editing
The Genome Editing team at Life Edit works to devise gene editing strategies for targets of interest, execute editing screening campaigns, and perform hit-to-lead activities including in vitro proof-of-concept and mechanism of action studies, and performs off-target analyses to ensure the safety of our therapies. Our team collaborates closely with Corporate Development to help identify novel therapeutic targets, as well as with the Computational Biology, Technology Development, and Preclinical teams to deploy Life Edit’s array of genome editing systems and move lead editing compositions into animal models.
Life Edit has a powerful suite of gene editing technologies to accelerate the development of life-changing and curative therapies for patients. We are uniquely positioned to develop targeted editing medicines for each disease with our full spectrum of gene editing modalities, which include double-strand breaks, base editing and reverse transcriptase editing to modify gene targets both in vivo and ex vivo.
Preclinical Development
The Preclinical Development team defines the strategy, experimental design, and assays to evaluate gene editing therapeutic candidates using clinically relevant models. The preclinical phase of drug development involves testing of activity and safety of a Drug Candidate in clinically relevant in vitro and in vivo studies before testing in humans can be performed. The goal of preclinical development is to define the dose, in terms of safety and activity, for human study. And subsequently to submit data to the regulatory agencies to approve clinical testing of the drug in humans.
We design and manage preclinical studies (non-GLP and GLP) for inclusion in regulatory filings and interact with regulatory agencies on preclinical matters. We work closely with other functional areas to ensure that all studies are performed in a quality, timely, scientific, and in a regulatory ready research manner while practicing refine, replace and reducing animal numbers.
Our team’s preclinical activities for Life Edit’s gene editing programs include delivery, bioanalytics, pharmacology, immunology and safety. Our scientists run preclinical development across multiple programs and contribute to the preclinical development of a variety of gene editing products.
Hear what our team is saying
“As someone who has always wanted to use genetic engineering to solve real world problems, Life Edit is the place where I know I have the people and the expertise around me to make a meaningful contribution to modern medicine.”
Jake Deslauriers
Scientist I, Gene Editing
“From therapeutic developments to contributing to the technology behind gene editing, our pursuits are aligned with Life Edit’s goal of revolutionizing healthcare and delivering curative therapies for patients living with rare genetic diseases.”
Gunjan Arya
Project Manager
"Every day is exciting; hearing the advancements, the progress of our internal pipeline and partnerships - the breakthroughs we are making… it's incredible knowing their weight and potential of the lives of patient."
Tim Schwochert
Scientist II, Protein Chemistry
“I think in terms of being a great partner, our past experiences on what we've been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time shows how hard we work and how innovative some of our scientists are.”
Allie Crawley
Associate Director, Computational Biology
