Dr. CHEW WEI LEONG

GENOME ENGINEERING AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY AT THE GENOME INSTITUTE OF SINGAPORE

ABSTRACT:

Life can now be programmed to molecular precision. I will share how we are taking these engineering advances from molecule to human. On the smallest molecular levels, I will share our recent work in the development of new genome editors, including one of the first C-to-G base editors that precisely convert single nucleotides within mammalian cells. I will also share multiple exciting developments in high-throughput protein and viral assay and engineering, both in terms of new methodology and how these technology platforms confer desired functionality to the newly engineered assets. Moving towards cells and whole mammals, I will share our work and goals in genetically engineering cells, human 3D organoids, and large animals, both for therapeutic development and for dissecting novel biological insights. Finally, we will touch on our near-term vision for synthetic biology research and tech development in our group and how we envision working more closely with you.

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr Chew Wei Leong is Senior Research Scientist at the Genome Institute of Singapore. His team develops technologies that make pinpoint changes to genes. His work provided the first demonstrations of multi-organ gene editing, disease gene correction with CRISPR-Cas9, and insights into the safety profile of these new nucleic acid therapeutics. He holds >10 patents and technology disclosures in the areas of gene editing, gene therapy, and nucleic acid technologies. Dr Chew Wei Leong is the recipient of the President’s Science and Technology Awards – Young Scientist Award 2020. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Magna Cum Laude; Phi Beta Kappa) from Duke University and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University with Prof. George Church. While pursuing his doctoral studies, he conducted research on therapeutic genome-editing. More information can be found on the lab website: https://chewlab.github.io