Targeting genes by the thousands
Tim Wang came to MIT six years ago with a simple plan: He wanted to take a genetic approach to studying cancer. A PhD candidate in biology, Wang was drawn to the Institute partly by the prospect of working with some of the field’s most cutting-edge and revolutionary tools. One such opportunity, perhaps more significant than he could have anticipated upon arriving at MIT, arose with the recent advent of the genome-editing method known as CRISPR. Using this system, Wang has developed a research technique with broad applications for studying a myriad of diseases. Meaningful impact Wang spent most of his childhood in California. After watching his dad work on computers around the house when he was growing up, he decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. However, between his sophomore and junior year of college, Wang’s grandfather was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “At...