Dr. Le Cong's group is developing technology for large-scale genome editing and single-cell perturbation-profiling, integrating advance from metagenomics, computational biology, and machine learning. In particular, the group are using gene-editing and data science method to study immunological and neurological diseases. Dr. Cong's work has led to one of the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tools for in vivo gene therapy. More recently, his group invented tools for cleavage-free large gene insertion with novel recombination proteins, and developed single-cell tracking approach for studying cancer immunology, enabled by deep learning. Dr. Cong is a recipient of the NHGRI Genomic Innovator Award, Baxter Foundation Faculty Scholar, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN) Top 10 Under 40, Clinical OMICs Pioneers Under 40, and Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher.

The Cong lab is developing gene-editing technologies, such as CRISPR systems for in vivo therapy, and cleavage-free techniques for large gene insertion via microbial recombinase. The team also pioneers in single-cell tracking for cancer and immunology studies using novel CRISPR tools. To accelerate their work, they integrate AI and machine learning into these technologies, design and evolve proteins/RNAs, pushing frontiers in understanding and treating neurological and immunological disease.