Celebration of Madeline King's PhD

Congratulations to Madeleine King, a graduate researcher in the Lapinaite Lab, on successfully defending her PhD in Biochemistry. Her dissertation, Engineering Base and Prime Editors for Improved Precision, Specificity, and Fidelity, focuses on advancing genome editing technologies to make genetic modifications safer, more precise, and better suited for potential therapeutic applications.

King’s research centers on engineering next generation base and prime editors, two CRISPR based technologies capable of making precise changes to DNA without relying on the double strand DNA breaks traditionally associated with CRISPR Cas9. In particular, her work has focused on developing high fidelity adenine base editors designed to reduce unintended off target and bystander edits while expanding the ability to precisely target disease relevant genetic variants.

Her dissertation also investigates factors that influence the purity and accuracy of prime editing outcomes. Prime editors can install a wider range of targeted DNA changes, including substitutions, small insertions, and deletions, but unintended editing products can limit their effectiveness. By examining the mechanisms behind these outcomes and engineering improved editing systems, King’s research contributes to ongoing efforts to develop genome editing tools with greater precision, specificity, and reliability.

These advances could help strengthen the potential of precision genome editing for treating genetic diseases, where accurately correcting a disease causing mutation while minimizing unintended changes is especially important. King’s research builds on the Lapinaite Lab’s broader work to understand and engineer next generation genome editing technologies for precision therapeutics.

King expressed her gratitude to her advisor, Dr. Audrone Lapinaite, for her mentorship throughout her doctoral training, as well as to the entire Lapinaite Lab for creating a research environment that made the lab a place she looked forward to each day.

Following completion of her PhD, King plans to explore opportunities in the biotechnology industry where she can apply her expertise in genome editing and protein engineering, including research and development, field application science, and scientific consulting.