David R. Liu is the Richard Merkin Professor, vice-chair of the faculty at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Liu’s research integrates chemistry and evolution to illuminate biology and enable novel therapeutics. His research interests include the engineering, evolution, and in vivo delivery of genome editing agents to study and treat genetic diseases; the evolution of proteins with therapeutic potential using phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE); and the discovery of bioactive synthetic molecules using DNA-templated synthesis and DNA-encoded libraries. He is an elected member of the U.S. NAS, NAM, and AAAS. He has earned numerous awards and honors in recognition of his research and teaching. He is the founder or co-founder of biotechnology companies including Prime Medicine, Beam Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Pairwise Plants, Chroma Medicine, Nvelop Therapeutics, and Exo Therapeutics.