The Kleinstiver Lab
We develop genome engineering technologies for research applications and for the treatment of human diseases. Learn more about our research and the people in the lab!
The Kleinstiver Lab is located in the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Reach out and join us!
News & things happening in the Kleinstiver Lab
MGB Celebration of Science / Martin Prize 🏆
April 2026
Congrats to Kiran and Annie who presented on their recent work on next-gen DNA writing tools! 🧬
The lab was also awarded a Martin Prize, which recognizes an outstanding research achievement, for the PAMmla manuscript led by Rachel 🌟
INSTALL manuscript published in Nature! ⭐️ 🧬
March 2026
Congratulations to Connor and the entire collaborative team on this manuscript published in Nature. We developed an immune-evasive DNA donor format compatible with most DNA-insertion technologies (e.g. recombinases), overcoming toxicity to primary human cells and mice 🧬 🔎 🐁
Please find more details: free link to paper via ReadCube - Research Briefing
MGB press release, Endpoints,GEN, Fierce Biotech, CMN - Bluesky tutorial: *here* and Xtorial: *here*
Skating! ⛸️ 🥅
March 2026
Welcome to Chris P. who joined the lab for his MD internship, and farewell to Michael who is off to medical school after two years of engineering Cas9 enzymes and base editors! 🩺
Tiramisu making class 🧑🍳
February 2026
Congratulations to Joana, who was recruited to a position at Basecamp Research! 🔬
We wish you all the best, Jo! 🎉
Pottery making class to celebrate Rachel🏺
January 2026
A lab outing to test our creative talents (and patience!) & a bittersweet farewell to Rachel, who is moving on to her postdoc as a Biswas Fellow in Yunha Hwang's lab at MIT!
Congratulations, Rachel!! 🎉
Kleinstiver Lab Holiday Party! 🎉 🎄🎅🏻
December 2025
Another great holiday party! Featuring a delicious international potluck 🌎, science-themed drinks 🍹, super creative yankee-swap gifts 🎁, & socks Twist 🧦 (#sponsored). Thanks to all! ❄️🙏
Presentations @ MGB GCTI Symposium 💉🧬
December 2025
Excellent presentations by Dahlia, David, Chris, and Emily - including a major congrats to Emily on winning a poster prize! 🏆 🎉
A lab outing to Boda Borg ⏰💪🧠
October 2025
After running out of escape rooms to try, we ventured to Boda Borg for a group adventure and it was a major hit! A really fun combination of physical & mental puzzles 🕵️🏆 🔎
Connor is a 2025 STAT Wunderkind! 🏅
October 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Tou on being named a 2025 STAT Wunderkind! A very well deserved recognition for Connor, who has been an innovator throughout his time in our group. 🚀
Dr. Alves off to start his lab at UPitt! 👨🔬🔬
September 2025
We went out for rodizio to congratulate Chris on starting his group at UPitt! 🍖🥩🍗🇧🇷
During his time in the lab as an Instructor > Assistant Professor, Chris played a really key role leading several of our in vivo genome editing projects (and wrangling large collaborative efforts). Let's go Chris! 🙌 🌟
Customized base editor to treat MSMDS! ⌨️🧬🐁
September 2025
Our manuscript describing the optimization of a bespoke base editor to treat a severe pediatric vascular disease is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering! 🫀🧬 (click here for a free link to the paper)
This project has been a massive 5+ year collaborative effort with the labs of Drs. Patricia Musolino & Mark Lindsay at MGH (and many others!).
For more details: bluesky tutorial / Xtorial / MGH Press Release / GEN / Fierce Biotech / Precision Medicine Online / BioXconomy
Welcome & farewell! 👋 🍦 🤗
August 2025
Ice cream outing to wish our Eckerd summer student, Sam, all the best as he returned to school. And we also welcomed several new lab members this summer! 🙏🌞
Summer lab outing ☀️
June 2025
Lab outing to... an escape room, of course! Both teams were successful again 😎🕵️
The remarkable story of baby KJ 👶
May 2025
Amazing news from UPenn & CHOP, about a newborn boy who was successfully treated with the world's first bespoke gene editing treatment (published in the New England Journal of Medicine). 🏥 💉
Grab some tissues and watch this inspirational & emotional video. 😮💨
See coverage from an MGH Press Release / Endpts, describing how we designed the customized CRISPR-Cas9 enzyme that was personalized for baby KJ & used in his treatment (via our PAMmla model).
4x techs >>> on to MDs and/or PhDs! 🎉
May 2025
Good luck to Lauren (University of Washington; PhD), Shuqi (Washington University of St. Louis; PhD), Madeline (UConn; MD/PhD), and Blaire (Johns Hopkins; PhD) on their next steps 👣 in graduate and medical school - we'll miss you 👏🥂
Congrats Dr. Silverstein! 👸 🧬
April 2025
Congratulations to Rachel (aka the PAM queen 👸) on defending her PhD! During her thesis research, Rachel engineered more CRISPR-Cas9 enzymes than any other person on the planet - yielding incredible tools that are already benefitting patients 🏆
PAMmla paper published in Nature 🧬🌟
April 2025
Our manuscript describing the use of scalable protein engineering to develop a PAM machine learning algorithm (PAMmla) was published in Nature, 2025 (free link to paper). This was the 1️⃣st demonstration of using ML to reprogram CRISPR-Cas enzymes, resulting in a large catalog of bespoke enzymes that can be customized using a webtool based on user-inputted parameters.
Please find more details in our Bluesky tutorial / Xtorial / MGH Press Release / GEN.
⚾️ Red Sox 🇺🇸 vs. Blue Jays 🇨🇦
April 2025
Lab outing to watch a game at Fenway Park - which (un)fortunately resulted in a Sox win over the Jays..
Farewell, Linyuan! 👋 🎉
April 2025
Congratulations to Linyuan on a really successful postdoc fellowship in our group! She was at the forefront of several IND-enabling studies while also developing new technologies. We will miss you! 🙏🥳
Congrats to Dr. Tou!! 🎓📜🌟
March 2025
Major congrats to Connor on a successful PhD defense and his impressive thesis! Connor has been a driving force behind our efforts to build new genome editing tech for larger sequence editing 🏆🧬
Bowling 🎳
February 2025
A bittersweet farewell outing to toast all of Fredi's accomplishments during her internship in our group!
Starting 2025 off with some escape-pades 🕵️
January 2025
Another set of escape rooms bite the dust! 🏆
MGH CGM Holiday Celebration ❄️☃️
December 2024
Great times at the annual MGH Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) Holiday Party 🎄🎁
Presentations at the GCTI Symposium! 📊🎤
November 2024
Congrats to Lauren, Madeline, Blaire, Shuqi, and Jasna on great poster presentations at the 2024 MGB Gene and Cell Therapy Institute annual research symposium!
Treating X-CGD with SpRY BEs published! 🧬
October 2024
Our manuscript describing the optimization of high-fidelity PAMless base editors to complete the IND-enabling studied to treat X-linked chronic granulomatous disease was published in Science Translational Medicine. This work was a collaborative project led by Dr. Suk See De Ravin at the NIH.
See an Xtorial here, an MGH Press Release, and coverage in GEN and Precision Medicine Online.
Ice cream outing! 🍦
September 2024
Taking a break from lab work to beat the summer heat 🔥
Presentations @ CSHL CRISPR 2024 🎤
August 2024
Rachel & Jo gave excellent talks at the CSHL CRISPR conference '24 - great work! 🌟
Farewell & Congrats, Madeline! 🧬👩🔬
August 2024
Madeline had a really productive summer working with Blaire and Linyuan - we'll miss you!
Click editing is published! 🧬🔧
July 2024
Our manuscript describing click editors was published in Nature Biotechnology (see ReadCube link for a free version of the paper). Connor and Jo also assembled a Research Briefing and our work was also featured in a News & Views. For more information, see Xtorials: *here* and *here* and *here*
Congrats to Dr. Hille!! 🧑🎓🌟🎉
July 2024
Logan defended his PhD - the first graduate student to wrap up his thesis research in our group. Congrats to Logan on all that he accomplished during his time in the lab 🧫👏
Mini golf for a lab outing ⛳️
July 2024
Lots of birthdays, fellowships, and papers to celebrate this summer! 🎉
A farewhale party for Logan 🐳
May 2024
Lab dinner at Night Shift to celebrate Logan's upcoming farewell from the lab (kudos to Rachel for the cake 🎂)
A busy winter ❄️
Winter 2024
SpRY protein available commercially, a lab trip for ramen, and Chris builds out his group 🍜 👼
Holiday celebration season 🎁
December 2023
An international potluck, gift swap, and trip to the Liberty Hotel for our annual CGM holiday party 🎊 🥂
How do you like them apples 🍎
October 2023
A fruitful lab outing to pick some apples, eat treats, and play some games 🚐 🍎 ⛳️
Breakfast at Mamaleh's 🥯☕️
September 2023
Lots to celebrate - birthdays, preprints, and grants! Congrats to all on a busy summer full of new people in the lab and many exciting things.
Congrats Alex! 🎉
August 2023
Working with Emily, Alex spent her summer internship investigating some interesting properties of base editors 🧬🧑🔬
Celebrating Lani's farewell 🎉🩺
May 2023
An outing to PKL to congratulate Lani on 2 great years in the lab - wishing you all the best in medical school!
Farewell Ann-Sophie! 🔬🏓
April 2023
We really enjoyed having you in the lab! #quiddditchchampion
A productive winter for the lab
March 2023
Congrats to Chris on receiving several grants, and to Emily for passing her PQE & an NSF honorable mention. The lab was also awarded an MGH Research Scholar Award. And special thanks to Jo for making this lab cartoon 🙏😀.
"CRISPR Anywhere" a top tech to watch in 2023
January 2023
A fitting day for Russell to finally receive his very belated framed cover art, as Nature featured his work developing SpRY as one of "Seven Technologies to Watch in 2023". Amazing work, congrats Russell!
🧬 Two papers published to start the year 🎉
January 2023
Our manuscript describing HELIX to improve several properties of CRISPR-associated transposases published in Nature Biotechnology. See Connor's tweetorial and blog post.
We also contributed to an international collaboration on ancestral Cas enzymes (with data and analysis by Logan and Rachel).
Congrats to all co-authors 😃🥂
Lab get together 🍴
November 2022
A night of pasta 🍝 and spicy chips 🔥 to celebrate an exciting fall in the lab!
Annual Retreat for our Center
November 2022
Chris and Connor presented posters on their new exciting work at our CGM retreat (hosted at Broad institute)!
🎃 Happy Halloween 👻
October 2022
Spooky in the Kleinstiver lab with Laa-Laa, TInky-Winky, Po, Sun Baby, and Dipsy
🧬 SpRYgest manuscript published 🧬
October 2022
Our manuscript describing the use of SpRY for DNA digests (SpRYgests) published in Nature Biotechnology. See Katie's tweetorial and news here, here, and here. Congrats all 😃🍻
NIH Director's New Innovator (DP2) Award
October 2022
The lab was fortunate to receive an NIH grant! These funds will enable us to continue our work developing innovative genome editing technologies. More news here and here.
Lab bday celebrations 🎂
September 2022
A month full of birthdays and other things to celebrate!! 🥳
📣 DSB-free kb-scale edits 📣
September 2022
Connor's perspective piece on recent technology developments for large sequence edits published in Biochemistry
Congrats AJ!
August 2022
AJ gave an excellent presentation to the CGM, summarizing his project in the lab! Thanks for joining us, AJ!
Ice cream 🍦 for Jo's #scoopversary
August 2022
A worthy celebration of Jo's path to her great paper on DNA repair determinants of prime editing. Read more about the 🍦celebration here!
🍕 Pizza @ Area Four 🍕
August 2022
Celebrating AJ's summer internship, Jake's rotation, and Chris's fellowship!
Spring lab outing!
April 2022
Successfully escaped both rooms at PanIQ! 🕵️ 🔎
Farewell, KAC! 🎉
December 2021
Sending off the last Kleinstiver Lab OG with Korean food 🥘, a round of the Friends game, and a special 🐷. Best of luck in your new role at ScribeTx, Katie!
2021 Holiday Party
December 2021 🌟
Yankee Swap, games, and sushi 🍱
So Ultra 🏃
October 2021 🎃
The Kleinstiver Lab watched in awe as Connor fulfilled his life goal of pipetting and crushing a marathon at the same time
Farewell, Roman! 👨🔬
October 2021
Best oof luck on your next adventures, we'll miss you!
Patio lunch for Logan's Bday 🎈
October 2021
Complete with a bacon-wrapped, cheese- and sausage-stuffed, sausage. Amazing creation, Rachel! 🥓
Delicious Ube Mochi Cake for Connor's Bday 🎉
September 2021
Thanks to Katie and Rachel for this tasty treat!! 🎂
Congrats Esaria!
August 2021
Congrats to Esaria and the rest of the Eckerd College interns for a productive summer in the CGM!
Farewell BBQ for Madelynn!
July 2021
Wishing Madelynn all the best as she moves on to start grad school at U Penn in the fall!
Inaugural Kleinstiver Lab retreat
July 2021
Off for our first lab retreat in Provincetown for a day packed with exploring and eating!
Gallery Now Open 🎨
June 2021
The Kleinstiver Lab Art Gallery of Modern CRISPR Art is now open! Visits by appointment only.
Congrats Rachel!
June 2021
A well-deserved celebration for Rachel passing her PQE!
#luckylogan
March 2021
Happy St. Patrick's Day! 🍀
The lab receives an award!
March 2021
We're honored to receive this GenScript Distinguished Research Award, especially to share it with a distinguished scientist like Dr. Caixia Gao! Kudos and thanks to my lab, and all our colleagues, friends, and family who voted for us!! See more *here*
Join us!!
January 2021
Back in the lab after shutdown!
July 2020
After a long pause on wet-lab research, we're back in the lab. Stay safe everyone!
virtual PQE celebration
April 2020
Logan Hille (Harvard BBS PhD candidate) passed his PQE (preliminary qualifying exam) this week. Congrats, Logan! 💯🎉
The first paper from our lab published in Science!
March 2020
Our work to enable nearly complete targeting of the genome with CRISPR-Cas9 is published! Congrats to Russell (💯), Katie, and Madelynn on some truly impressive work.
Brief thread here + paper featured by Nature, MGH, GEN, and genomeweb.
Keystone Engineering the Genome
February 2020
Katie travelled to Canada to present her and Russell's latest work at the Keystone 2020 Conference, held in the beautiful city of Banff, AB.
📸 cred: @JulesGrünewald
CGM Holiday Party
December 2019
Another great holiday party with the Center for Genomic Medicine @ MGH, hosted at the Liberty Hotel, Boston
Kleinstiver Lab Holiday Celebration
December 2019
Holiday party complete with creatively wrapped yankee swap gifts, lab ornaments, and our newest lab member
Join us!
Before the spring
CRISPy, the pipetting snowman, won't last forever.. Check out our open positions here!
CGM annual retreat
October 2019
Katie presents her and Russell's exciting new work at the 2019 CGM retreat!
📸cred: @salomedsdl
We escaped!
August 2019
Our first lab outing to an escape room was a huge success (especially with 4 first-timers). Crush Depth at Trapology was great. Next: to complete all escape rooms in Boston..
"If you can cook, you can science"
April 2019
A very belated lab holiday celebration! During our cooking class at Eataly we learned how to make fresh cavatelli pasta with a garlic, parmesan, sausage, and broccoli rabe sauce. Delizioso!
Journal Club: Class 1 CRISPR systems
April 2019
Serendipitous day to choose papers that discuss Class 1 CRISPR systems for our Journal Club, given the recent publication from the Ke and Zhang labs (describing the use of Cas3 for long-range genome editing in human cells). Assist from the IGI with the CRISPR cards.
We're hiring!
March 2019
We are recruiting motivated researchers for a Research Technician I or II position. This is a great opportunity to gain 2 years of research experience in the genome editing field, especially for those who are looking for additional training prior to applying to graduate school. Link to application here.
Fancy new lab logo
March 2019
Science animator extraordinaire Joy Horng helps us design our new lab logo - thanks!
Cas12a paper published!
February 2019
Our work describing enhanced Cas12a variants, done in the Joung Lab, published in Nature Biotechnology! Thanks to all in the Joung lab and collaborators at MGH who made this possible! Special acknowledgement to Alex and Russell who worked day (and night) for a long time for this one.
Harold B Stewart Lecture
January 2019
Ben was honored to present the Harold B. Stewart Lecture, back where he did his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at Western University.
Lab work begins!
November 2018
All stocked up and ready to go..
Poster Award!
October 2018
Russell wins a Poster of Distinction Award at MGH Clinical Research Day - congrats Russell!
CGM Annual Retreat
September 2018
Russell presents a 60-second lightning talk on genome editing and Cas12a!
+ Ben gave a seminar on all things planned for the Kleinstiver Lab.
Here we go!
September 2018
A blank canvas, soon to be full
Reach out!
The Kleinstiver Lab is located in the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the Departments of Pathology at MGH and Harvard Medical School (HMS).
Inquiries should be directed to Ben Kleinstiver:
bkleinstiver [at] mgh.harvard.edu
