Arc is an independent, non-profit research institute that operates in partnership with Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco.https://arcinstitute.org/

I invest in and advise startups, including The Bot Company, Varda Space, Arbor Biotechnologies, Vial Health, Veda Bio, Factory.ai, Tome Biosciences, Atomic.ai, Medra.ai, Sphinx.bio, Teiko.bio, Cradle.bio, Nucleus Genomics, Stipple Bio, Dover, Rewrite Therapeutics (acquired, Intellia), Replace Therapeutics (acquired, Tome), Serotiny (acquired, J&J), and many more.I also invest with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross (investing $1M-$100M at a time). Areas of interest include AI, robotics, therapeutics, chips, defense, and frontier tech (e.g. BCI).

The Hsu Lab aims to understand and manipulate the genetic circuits that control brain and immune cell function to improve human health. We explore the rich biological diversity of nature to create new molecular technologies for genome and transcriptome engineering, perturb complex cellular processes at scale, and develop next-generation gene and cell therapies.Our work is supported by the University of California at Berkeley, the NIH Director's Early Independence Award, the National Institute on Aging, NIGMS, and Dipanjan and Shashikala Deb. We are housed within the Innovative Genomics Institute.

We are developing and applying novel technologies that make it possible to systematically reverse-engineer cellular processes through rapid and precise perturbations. Our group draws upon diverse approaches from synthetic biology, genomics, and neuroscience for the high-throughput interrogation and control of transcriptional and epigenetic cell states. The goal is to uncover the biological mechanisms behind neurodegenerative disease and complex genetic disorders, as well as to develop tools and therapeutic strategies for their treatment.Our work is supported by the Helmsley Charitable Trust and the NIH Director's Early Independence Award.Transcriptome engineering with RNA-targeting Type VI-D CRISPR effectors Konermann S, Lotfy P, Brideau NJ, Oki J, Shokhirev MN, Hsu PD. Cell, 2018Pairwise library screen systematically interrogates Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 specificity in human cells Tycko J, Barrera LA, Huston N, Friedland AE, Wu X, Gootenberg JS, Abudayyeh OO, Myer VE, Wilson CJ, Hsu PD. Nature Communications, 2018Methods for Optimizing CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Specificity Tycko J, Myer VE, Hsu PD. Molecular Cell, 2016

As part of the initial team at the first Cas9 therapeutics company (from 5 scientists in a conference room through IPO), I led early stage discovery projects for translating genome editing technologies to treat human genetic disease.Gori JL, Hsu PD, Maeder ML, Shen S, Welstead GG, Bumcrot D (2015). Delivery and Specificity of CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Technologies for Human Gene Therapy. Human Gene Therapy.

Evaluated bi-national startup pitches on biomedical devices for technical and regulatory feasibility. The governments of the US (the Department of State) and India (through the Department of Science & Technology) established the United States–India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) for the promotion of joint activities that would lead to innovation and entrepreneurship through the application of science and technology.

- Developing and applying CRISPR-Cas and TAL effector genome engineering technologies- Investigating the epigenetic regulation of neuropsychiatric disease- Inventor on multiple patents and patent applications related to genome editingSELECTED PUBLICATIONS (*denotes equal contribution)Hsu PD, Lander ES, Zhang F (2014). Development and applications of the CRISPR nuclease Cas9 for genome engineering. Cell. Wu X, Scott DA, Kriz AJ, Chiu AC, Hsu PD, Dadon DB, Cheng AW, Trevino AE, Konermann S, Chen S, Jaenisch R, Zhang F, Sharp PA (2014). Genome-wide binding of Cas9 in mammalian cells. Nature Biotechnology.Nishimasu H, Ran FA, Hsu PD, Konermann S, Shehata S, Dohmae N, Ishitani R, Zhang F, Nureki O (2014). Crystal structure of Cas9 in complex with guide RNA and target DNA. Cell.Pyzocha NK, Ran FA, Hsu PD, Zhang F. (2014). RNA-guided genome editing of mammalian cells. Methods Mol. Biol.Ran FA*, Hsu PD*, Wright J, Agarwala V, Scott DA, Zhang F. (2013). Genome engineering using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Nature Protocols.Ran FA*, Hsu PD*, Lin CY, Gootenberg JS, Konermann S, Trevino AE, Scott DA, Inoue A, Matoba S, Zhang Y, Zhang F. (2013). Double nicking by RNA-guided CRISPR Cas9 for enhanced genome editing specificity. Cell.Konermann S, Brigham MD, Trevino AE, Hsu PD, Heidenreich M, Cong L, Platt RJ, Scott DA, Church GM, Zhang F. (2013). Optical control of mammalian endogenous transcription and epigenetic states. Nature.Hsu PD*, Scott DA*, Weinstein JA, Ran FA, Konermann S, Agarwala V, Li Y, Fine EJ, Wu X, Shalem O, Cradick TJ, Marraffini LA, Bao G, Zhang F. (2013). DNA targeting specificity of RNA-guided Cas9 nucleases. Nature Biotechnology. Cover publication Cong L, Ran FA, Cox D, Lin S, Barretto R, Habib N, Hsu PD, Wu X, Jiang W, Marraffini LA, Zhang F. (2013). Multiplex genome engineering using CRISPR/Cas systems. ScienceHsu PD, Zhang F. (2012). Dissecting neural function using targeted genome engineering technologies. ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Laboratory of Anthony Ricci- Studied the effect of calcium chelation and tip link cleavage on tip morphology of hair cell stereocilia bundles and proper mechanoelectrical transduction physiology

Laboratory of Stefan Heller- Showed and characterized the localization of a novel stereociliary protein, StarD10, in inner ear vestibular and cochlear hair cells and stereocilia bundles- Found specific StarD10 binding to inositol phospholipids- Established an in vitro model in porcine epithelial cells for functional characterizationPUBLICATIONSPeng AW, Belyantseva IA, Hsu PD, Friedman TB, Heller S. (2009). Twinfilin 2 regulates actin filament lengths in cochlear stereocilia. The Journal of Neuroscience.

Laboratory of W. Paul Brown- Reconstructed thousands of MRI and CT anatomical slices of human cadavers and an ancient embalmed mummy into volumetric computer models- Segmented high resolution data sets of carpal bones, hands, and the vertebral colum- Assembled anatomical models into an interactive bone atlas for anatomy education- Annotated brain stem and cranial vasculature models