Leader in Synthetic Biology Joins SEAS

Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, the Hok Lam and Kathleen Kam Wong Professor of Bioengineering, is joining the faculty of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) this semester. Khalil is a leader in the fields of synthetic and systems biology. His laboratory develops tools of synthetic biology, laboratory evolution, genomics, and computation to better understand how complex cellular systems work and to design synthetic ones that enable new and useful biological functions.

Khalil is joining SEAS from Boston University, where he and his lab pioneered synthetic biology approaches to dissect and engineer the molecular circuits that control eukaryotic gene regulation. Their work has led to fundamental discoveries into the nature of transcription regulation and epigenetic memory, and generated powerful tools for creating synthetic circuits for precise and programmable control of therapeutic cells, including CAR T cells to treat cancer.

Khalil has also developed continuous evolution technologies, including the automated eVOLVER platform, that allow researchers to harness the process of evolution to rapidly generate biomolecules with new and improved functions. Khalil co-founded a company, called K2 Therapeutics, that is applying technologies from his lab, including yeast genetic circuits and these directed evolution methods, to discover and generate precision antibodies for new treatments for a variety of diseases.

No stranger to Harvard, Khalil was previously a visiting scholar with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. With his move to Harvard, he also joins as a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute, and an Associate Faculty at the Wyss Institute. 

Khalil received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he was awarded a Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Graduate Fellowship. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Chemistry.

“Professor Khalil will strengthen and elevate the bioengineering community here at SEAS and I am delighted to count him as a member of our faculty,” said David C. Parkes, John A. Paulson Dean of SEAS. “His pioneering work at the frontier of synthetic and systems biology blends foundational discoveries and transformative technologies that will have a profound impact on health and medicine.”