Erik Sontheimer

Professor · RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School · company speakers →

Erik Sontheimer, PhD, is Professor in the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his PhD at Yale in the laboratory of Joan Steitz and was a postdoctoral fellow with Joe Piccirilli at the University of Chicago. In 1999, Sontheimer joined the faculty at Northwestern, where he continued his work on the roles of RNA molecules in gene expression, including the study of CRISPR immune systems in bacteria. Among other advances, in 2008 his group demonstrated that CRISPR systems target DNA directly, becoming the first to recognize and articulate CRISPR’s potential for genome engineering. He has received a CAREER Award from the NSF, a New Investigator Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Distinguished Teaching Award from Northwestern, the Nestlé Award from the American Society for Microbiology, the Mid-Career Award from the RNA Society, and election to the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2014, he co-founded Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., to develop clinical applications of CRISPR gene editing. That same year, he also moved to the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Medical School, where he is continuing his research on the biological roles and technological applications of RNA-based systems.

Is this you? Claim this profile →