Tech Talks

CRISPR Technology

Dr. Shawn Burgess

^{September 27 | 12:00 - 1:00pm ET | In-Person | Y403}

TECH TALKS

Is a series of lunchtime discussions on the Technologies Changing our World co-hosted by the Tech, Law & Security Program and the Program on Information Justice & Intellectual Property at American University, Washington College of Law. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Burgess received his Ph.D. in genetics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he studied the genetics of mitochondrial fusion and fission in yeast. He trained with Nancy Hopkins, Ph.D., at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was part of a large effort to develop insertional mutagenesis in zebrafish, coupled with a genetic screen to identify genes essential for early development of a vertebrate. Since 2001, he has been at the National Human Genome Research Institute, where he is a senior investigator and heads the Developmental Genomics Section.

Much of Dr. Burgess' work in the last decade has been focused on developing efficient gene knockout technologies in zebrafish, coupled with efficient phenotyping of the gene disruptions.

More recently, Dr. Burgess has turned his mutagenesis efforts to targeted knockouts using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, gaining full control over which genes are inactivated. As a result, targeted screening in a vertebrate is now possible for the first time, realistically surveying 5-10 percent of the genome for relevant phenotypes in any biological process.