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The Programmable Biology Group

We integrate generative AI and experimental protein design to create
programmable platforms for genome, proteome, and cell engineering.

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Our Research

Home: Research

Expansive Genome Editing

Our mission is to enable CRISPR-mediated editing of any DNA sequence -- to cure genetic diseases, grow better crops, develop new bioenergy solutions, and enhance scientific applications of genome editing. To do this, we employ diverse computational methods, such as bioinformatics, machine learning, and structure-based modeling, to engineer robust Cas9 enzymes. Our current set of enzymes, including ScCas9, Sc++, iSpyMac, and now SpRYc, represent some of the broadest, safest, and most effective RNA-guided genome editors, to date.

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Home: Our Team

Our Team

We program biology to do what we want.

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Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

MIT (SB '16, SM '18, PhD '20)

Co-Founder of Gameto, Inc.

Co-Founder of UbiquiTx, Inc.

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Postdoctoral Fellow

PhD (Fudan '20)

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PhD Student

BS (Duke '23)

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PhD Student

BS (Georgia Tech '22)

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PhD Student

SB (MIT '23)

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PhD Student

BS (Kansas '22)

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Masters Student

BS (Duke Kunshan '23)

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MD-PhD Student 
BS (UConn '20)

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Undergraduate 
Harvard '24

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Research Associate 
MS (Kyoto U '23)

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Undergraduate

Duke '25

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PhD Student - Duke NUS

BS (UC Davis '20)

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Undergraduate

Duke '26

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Undergraduate

UNC '24

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Undergraduate

Duke '25

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Undergraduate

Duke '27

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Undergraduate

Duke '25

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Undergraduate

Duke '25

Our Alumni
 

Our Featured Progress

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We introduce PepPrCLIP, a language model-based pipeline to first generate naturalistic peptide candidates via Gaussian perturbation of ESM-2 and subsequent screening via a CLIP-based contrastive learning architecture. Check out our preprint on the bioRxiv!

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Contact Us!

Feel free to reach out and

learn more about our work!

Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies
Fitzpatrick Center (CIEMAS), Room 2339A
101 Science Drive
Duke University
Durham, NC 27705

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