David R. Liu is the Richard Merkin Professor, vice-chair of the faculty at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Liu’s research integrates chemistry and evolution to illuminate biology and enable novel therapeutics. His research interests include the engineering, evolution, and in vivo delivery of genome editing agents to study and treat genetic diseases; the evolution of proteins with therapeutic potential using phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE); and the discovery of bioactive synthetic molecules using DNA-templated synthesis and DNA-encoded libraries. Base editing—the first general method to perform precision gene editing without double-stranded breaks—as well as prime editing, PACE, and DNA-templated synthesis are four examples of technologies pioneered in his laboratory. These technologies are used by thousands of labs around the world and have enabled the study and treatment of genetic diseases. At least 23 clinical trials using base editing or prime editing are underway, with at least eight trials reporting results to date. Liu has published >280 research publications and >110 issued U.S. patents. He is an elected member of the U.S. NAS, NAM, and AAAS, as well as the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Laureate in the Life Sciences and the 2022 King Faisal Prize Laureate for Medicine. He is the founder or co-founder of biotechnology companies including Prime Medicine, Beam Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Pairwise Plants, nChroma Bio, and Exo Therapeutics.