An Iowa high school graduate has won a quarter-million dollar Science award.
Dr. Feng Zhang is one of the inventors of new gene editing technology, “CRISPR,” that will remove genetic mutations that cause diseases.
Dr. Zhang is now sharing information about this new tool to scientists around the world. He hopes to use this and other technologies to remove genetic mutations that cause many of the devastating and deadly diseases that afflict humankind. Zhang has developed a number of other neuroscience technologies, and is considered one of the true pioneers in medical research today.
The Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists is awarding Zhang a $250,000 dollar prize for his work, the largest prize for academic scientists age 42 and under. The award is given by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and New York Academy of Sciences.
Zhang is a 2000 graduate of Des Moines Roosevelt High School and Central Academy.
He now holds senior faculty appointments at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and at the McGovern Institute of MIT.