Omar Abudayyeh

Omar Abudayyeh is a gene-editing researcher at Harvard Medical School whose lab builds AI models of biological systems, including virtual cells. He earned a B.S. from MIT in 2012 and a PhD in 2018 in Feng Zhang's lab at the Broad Institute, where he helped identify RNA-guided RNA editing factors such as the Cas13 family, work that led to the REPAIR system. With Jonathan Gootenberg, he became a first McGovern Fellow at MIT in 2019, shared the inaugural 2022 Termeer Scholars Awards, and co-founded Tome Biosciences, which raised $213 million in December 2023. A 2024 Michelson Prize backed his work on programmable RNA sensors for cancer immunotherapy, and in May 2026 Google DeepMind described how his lab uses its Co-Scientist system to propose genetic factors for reversing cellular aging. He is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and directs the Abudayyeh-Gootenberg lab.

Now at: Harvard Medical School, Mass General Brigham and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Works: 128
Citations: 38,905
h-index: 48
Badges: Rising
Founder
Bridge

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

By 2012

An MIT engineering degree

He grows up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 2012, he graduates from MIT with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and biological engineering.
2013–2018

PhD in Feng Zhang's lab

He receives a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship in 2013 to pursue an MD at Harvard and a PhD in bioengineering at MIT. In 2018, he completes the PhD in Feng Zhang's lab at the Broad Institute, where he helps identify RNA-guided RNA editing factors such as the Cas13 family, work that leads to the REPAIR system for editing RNA.
2019

First McGovern Fellows at MIT

In January 2019, he and Jonathan Gootenberg become the first fellows of MIT's McGovern Institute Fellows Program, which supports selected postdocs ready to start their own research. They run a joint lab at the McGovern Institute for four years.
2022

Inaugural Termeer Scholar

The Termeer Foundation names him and Gootenberg the inaugural recipients of its 2022 Termeer Scholars Awards. Their tools have formed the basis for four companies they have co-founded.
December 2023

Co-founding Tome Biosciences

In December 2023, Tome Biosciences raises $213 million in Series A and B funding to commercialize programmable genomic integration technology licensed from MIT. The approach builds on the PASTE method of genome editing, first discovered at MIT by Tome's co-founders Abudayyeh and Gootenberg.
2024

A Michelson Prize

As an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Brigham and Women's Hospital, he receives a 2024 Michelson Prize: Next Generation Grant, a $150,000 award from the Human Immunome Project and the Michelson Medical Research Foundation. His winning proposal covers programmable RNA sensors for next-generation cancer immunotherapies.
May 2026

Co-Scientist and cellular aging

In May 2026, Google DeepMind describes how he and Gootenberg use Co-Scientist, a multi-agent AI system built with Gemini, to speed up their lab's research on reversing cellular aging. The system proposes more than 20 novel genetic factors to test, and lab tests validate a couple of its hypotheses. He says that using it feels like having a team of 50 people at his disposal.
As of October 2026

Harvard professor and lab director

He is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, an Investigator at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Mass General Brigham's Gene and Cell Therapy Institute, and director of the Abudayyeh-Gootenberg lab. The lab develops gene editing, gene delivery and synthetic biology technologies with protein engineering and AI, and its projects include Virtual Cells and Virtual Tissues and reasoning models for health built in collaboration with Google.