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George Church, Ph.D. acts as the co-founder and lead genetics advisor for Colossal. He is a professor at Harvard and MIT, runs the Church lab at the Harvard Medical School, and is a Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard where he leads the Synthetic Biology Platform. Church is a recognized leader in genomics, having pioneered a number of advances and breakthroughs that have helped advance the entire field.

In 1984 with Wally Gilbert, Church developed the first direct genomic sequencing method and barcode-multiplexing tags. This led to automation and software used for the first cellular genome sequence (Helicobacter) in 1994, which evolved into ‘in-situ sequencing’ (1999) and ‘next-generation sequencing’ (2014).

Church then pioneered chip-based DNA libraries, genome editing, and stem cell engineering. He also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, human engineering, environmental, biosecurity, and bioethics strategies and training. Today, he and his group champion open-access human genome data.

For his achievements and direct contributions to genomics and the sciences as a whole, Church has received numerous awards. Some of his most prestigious recognitions include National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, the Heptannual Bower Award, and Prize for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute.