IGI Founder & Chair of the Governance Board

Jennifer Doudna is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Doudna lab studies the fundamental biological processes involving RNA molecules.

Jennifer is also the Executive Director of the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering, the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences, and a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

View Profile

Executive Director

Brad Ringeisen is the Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute, where he guides IGI’s scientific strategy and development. Brad is a physical chemist with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a pioneer in the field of live cell printing, and an experienced administrator of scientific research and product development.

Before joining the IGI, Brad was Director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA, where he managed a division working at the cutting edges of biology, physical sciences and engineering. Programs in Brad’s office included research in genome editing, epigenetics, neurotechnology, and marine science, as well as diagnostics and therapeutics development. Prior to DARPA, Brad ran his own research group at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as the head of the Bioenergy and Biofabrication Section.

View Profile

Deputy Director

Bruce Conklin is a Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institute and a Professor of the Departments of Medicine, Ophthalmology, and Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. The Conklin lab is developing genome surgery methods to treat severe mono-allelic genetic diseases of the retina, motor neurons, and cardiomyocytes.

Director, Microbiology

Jill Banfield is a Professor of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy, & Management at the University of California, Berkeley with an appointment in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The Banfield lab studies the inter-organismal and environmental interactions of natural microbial communities using cultivation-independent approaches such as metagenomics and community proteomics.

View Profile

Director, IGI Clinical Laboratory & NGS Core

Petros Giannikopoulos is the Director of the IGI Clinical Laboratory, a CLIA-certified laboratory that is accredited by the College of American Pathologists to perform high-complexity molecular testing. His research focuses on the development and deployment of laboratory-developed companion diagnostics for novel CRISPR-based genomic therapies.

Petros is board-certified in anatomic, pediatric, and molecular genetic pathology, and is a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists. Before joining the IGI, he was a health technology entrepreneur and also served as Laboratory Director for multiple next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based clinical genomics labs in the US and in Asia. He obtained his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, completed his pathology residency at the University of California, San Francisco, and trained in pediatric and molecular pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, respectively.

View Profile

Director, Public Impact

Melinda Kliegman holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University. Before joining the IGI, she worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was a Fellow in Global Policy and Advocacy, advising on the use of genome editing in agriculture and human health. In an earlier role at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Melinda served as a Science Advisor to the Foreign Agricultural Service, where she helped design and fund international trade programs and worked with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on international policy around plant biotechnology.

View Profile

Director, Human Health

Alex Marson is a Professor at UCSF and the Director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology. The Marson lab uses genome editing to study how different DNA sequences control human T cell function, and applies this knowledge to develop next-generation therapies for cancer as well as infectious and immunological diseases.

Dr. Marson is also a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and project member at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

View Profile

Director, Sustainable Agriculture

Brian Staskawicz is the Maxine J. Elliot Professor of Plant & Microbial Biology at The University of California, Berkeley. The Staskawicz lab studies the molecular basis of plant-pathogen interactions and applies their discoveries to engineer resistance in crop species.

Brian is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of The American Phytopathological Society and the American Society for Microbiology.

View Profile

Director, Technology & Translation

Fyodor Urnov is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of Technology & Translation at the IGI. His research focuses on advancing genome editing technology and pushing the boundaries of how it can be applied to solve real-world problems.

View Profile

Director, Therapeutic Delivery

Ross Wilson is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is working to enable widespread clinical use of genome editing, which is currently limited by the difficulty in delivering therapeutic enzymes to the cells in need of correction. To address this need, the Wilson lab is engineering CRISPR enzymes to create effective methods of administration that will facilitate targeted delivery to specific cells, tissues, or organs.

View Profile