Benjamin L. Oakes, PhD

Benjamin L. Oakes, PhD, is Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Scribe Therapeutics, a molecular engineering company focused on creating best-in-class CRISPR-based therapies that permanently treat the underlying cause of disease. Previously, as an Innovative Genomics Institute Entrepreneurial Fellow, Dr. Oakes focused on the holistic engineering of genome editing technologies to build novel genome editing molecules. He has contributed to over 35 publications and patent applications across synthetic biology, molecular engineering, CRISPR, and zinc finger-based genetic modification. Dr. Oakes has been named to the MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40, Endpoints 20 Under 40 in Biopharma, Business Insider 30 Under 40 Transforming Healthcare, and the Biocom Life Sciences Catalyst Awards. He received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2017, where he worked in the Doudna Lab and Savage Lab developing CRISPR-Cas9 molecules with enhanced characteristics. Two such projects resulted in distinct versions of synthetic sensing systems that can modify nucleic acids only when triggered by external stimuli, and have found use in both research and pragmatically applied technologies. Prior to his Ph.D. Dr. Oakes received his B.A. in the fields of Philosophy and Neurobiology and worked as a researcher applying unbiased, combinatorial evolution methods to build tens of thousands of “version one” genome editing tools, providing an open source framework for scientists and medical professionals to modify the genome B.C. — before the discovery of CRISPR technology