Samuel Sternberg
Columbia University, NY·Biochemistry·Early-career
CRISPR-Cas9 and CRISPR-Cas12 are enzymes that use a guide RNA to find and cut a matching DNA sequence. They have transformed gene editing in plants, animals and humans.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Genetics
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
CRISPR-Cas9
Cas12
TnpB
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Determine how transposases and TnpB-family RNA-guided nucleases coordinate their enzyme activities, testing whether DNA cutting helps transposons survive and spread, using biochemistry and genetics.
- Explore the RNA-guided nucleases encoded by diverse bacterial transposons, using phylogenetics, biochemistry and high-throughput sequencing to define their functions.
- Discover new RNA-guided nucleases encoded within archaeal and eukaryotic transposable elements, using phylogenetic searches and biochemical testing.
More about the research
Where did they come from? This project looks at a likely ancestor. That ancestor is the TnpB family of enzymes, carried by transposons, or 'jumping genes,' which copy or move themselves around genomes. TnpB enzymes also use guide RNAs encoded by the transposon to cut matching DNA. However, why transposons carry them is unclear. These genes appear in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, the three domains of life, and are paired with different families of transposases, the enzymes that move transposons.
Why it matters
Gene-editing tools built on CRISPR are used across medicine and biotechnology. Finding new RNA-guided DNA-cutting enzymes in transposons could supply next-generation genome-editing tools for researchers and future precision medicine. The work also adds basic understanding of how bacterial immune systems evolved from genetic parasites.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kiana Aran
University of California-San Diego, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Design CRISPR-transistor sensors that use a range of guide RNAs and Cas nucleases to electronically detect single-letter DNA changes, using the sickle cell HBB mutation as the model.
Josephina Van Wolfswinkel
Yale University, CT·Biology
Determine how source transcripts for piRNAs, small RNAs that silence jumping genes, are generated and recognized in planarian neoblast stem cells, and how the response is kept away from important genes.
Berenice Benayoun
University of Southern California, CA·Genetics
Characterize overall aging trajectories, including frailty, in two new mouse models of menopause: mid-life exposure to VCD, a chemical that depletes ovarian follicles, and Foxl2 haploinsufficiency (one working copy of an ovary-maintaining gene).
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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