Keith Joung, MD PhD

J. Keith Joung is a leading innovator in the field of gene editing. He is currently a Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks and is Professor of Pathology (on leave 2023-2024) at Harvard Medical School. He was previously the Robert B. Colvin, M.D. Endowed Chair in Pathology and a Pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Dr. Joung has been a pioneer in the development of important technologies for targeted gene editing and epigenetic editing of human cells. He has received numerous awards including the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding Achievement award in 2023, the 2022 Samsung Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Project R01 Award, the MGH Research Scholar Award (2011 and 2016), an NIH R35 MIRA (Maximizing Investigators Research Award), election into the American Association of University Pathologists, and designation as a “Highly Cited Researcher” for the past eight consecutive years (2016-2023) by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. He serves on the editorial boards of Cell Genomics, Genome Biology, Human Gene Therapy, and Trends in Biotechnology. He has co-founded multiple biotechnology companies including Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BEAM), Chroma Medicine, Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), Nvelop Therapeutics, Pairwise Plants, SeQure Dx, Inc., and Verve Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VERV). Dr. Joung holds a Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an A.B. magna cum laude in biochemical sciences from Harvard College.