Liu is recognized, in part, for inventing base editors, which can edit the genomes of living cells with unprecedented precision
On April 26, 2021, the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 120 new members, including David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, the Richard Merkin Professor, and member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit organization of the country’s leading researchers, which recognizes and promotes outstanding science through election to membership. Liu, who was also elected to the National Academy of Medicine in October 2020, earned his membership, in part, for designing a novel, and far more precise, form of genome editing tools known as base editors (named one of four 2017 Breakthrough of the Year finalists by Science).
In his lab, Liu also invented new methods to engineer, evolve, and perform in vivo delivery of genome editing proteins (including his base editors) to study and treat genetic diseases. With another Liu lab invetion called phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE), Liu rapidly evolves new proteins with novel therapeutic potential. He also discovered bioactive synthetic small molecules and synthetic polymers using DNA-templated organic synthesis and DNA-encoded libraries.
David Liu, one of 120 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, was previously named one of the Top 20 Translational Researchers in the world by Nature Biotechnology, one of Nature’s top 10 researchers in the world, and included in the Foreign Policy Leading Global Thinkers
In less than two years, base editing has been used by hundreds of laboratories to edit bacteria, yeast, rice, corn, wheat, tomatoes, frogs, fish, mice, and even human embryos, and has greatly advanced our ability to understand and treat genetic diseases, thousands of which are caused by point mutations suitable for base editing.
Most recently, Liu used an adenine base-editing treatment in mice with the rapid-aging disease progeria. The treatment successfully converted the genetic errors responsbile for the disease to their healthy form, leading to a dramatic improvement in tissue health. Treated mice lived about two and a half times longer, a huge improvement, which moves the technology a critical step closer to treatment in humans.
“I am pleased to welcome all of our new members," said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt in a press release, "and I look forward to engaging with them in the work of the National Academies.”
