Shengdar Q. Tsai, PhD

Dr. Shengdar Q. Tsai is an assistant member in the Department of Hematology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Michigan, M.S. in Bioinformatics and Ph.D. in Functional Genomics from North Carolina State University. He was a postdoctoral research fellow and instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tsai has focused on developing methods for high throughput genome editing with TALENs, and defining and improving the genome-wide specificity of CRISPR-Cas nucleases. His long-term research goals are to develop safe and highly specific targeted genome-editing strategies for treating human genetic diseases.

His research interests include:
• Improving genomic methods to define and measure gene editing “off-target” effects
• Protein engineering of CRISPR-Cas nucleases for precise gene correction
• Regulation of DNA damage repair choice between error-prone non-homologous end-joining and precise homology-directed repair
• Genome-scale CRISPR-Cas screening for novel effectors of hematological diseases
• Developing novel strategies for allele-specific editing of genetic mutations that cause sickle cell disease and other hematological disorders