Jens Magnusson

We believe that biological research will transition from mostly describing natural cell behaviors to mostly designing and engineering complex cell behaviors to address specific challenges. This transition will have a profound societal impact across a wide range of fields. In medicine, the ability to program cell behavior and identity in a data-driven way will enable entirely new cell-based treatments.

In my new research team, we seek to use synthetic biology to advance regenerative medicine – designing computer algorithms and molecular tools to predict and control cell behaviors useful for tissue repair. Specifically, our goal is to combine genome engineering tools (e.g., CRISPR) with prediction algorithms to enable data-driven precision engineering of cell identity and behavior, with a special focus on stem cells.

Our team is based at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, a stellar research environment that brings together fundamental technology development and clinical applications for cell and gene therapies in one single integrated setting.