The co-founder of the Scientific Citizenship Initiative discusses the importance of scientific communication, and trying to place STEM PhDs into the Mass. State House as full-time policy advisors
In a discussion with gene editing technology expert TJ Cradick, Scientific Citizenship Initiative Co-Founder and Co-Director Daniel Pomeroy describes the history and goal of this non-profit organization, and why having a scientific literate citizenry is so important.
The Experts
Dr. Daniel Pomeroy is the co-founder and co-director of the Scientific Citizenship Initiative (SCi). SCi was developed at Harvard University and now acts as an independent nonprofit whose mission is to support a growing civic science movement to make science more societally engaged and impactful. Prior to joining SCi he developed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Policy Lab at the Center for International Studies, which creates and enhances relationships between MIT researchers and public policy makers. Dr. Pomeroy serves on the external advisory board and steering committees of a number of programs designed to increase civic engagement and expand career opportunities for scientists and engineers. Dr. Pomeroy received his Ph.D. in physics from Brandeis University in 2012 studying high energy physics. He then served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and as a Science and Technology Policy fellow in the office of Senator Edward J. Markey.
TJ Cradick, PhD is a CRISPR and gene editing expert with over 25 years of experience in cell and gene therapy research and management. Currently TJ is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at HuidaGene Therapeutics, a global clinical-stage gene editing company working with a range of nucleases and base editors.
In 2015, TJ joined CRISPR Therapeutics as the second employee and Head of Genome Editing. Subsequently, he served as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Excision BioTherapeutics, expanding his expertise in IND, regulatory affairs, intellectual property, and clinical trials.
Educated at MIT and UCSF, Dr. Cradick joined Sangamo Biosciences in 2000, designing Zinc Finger proteins and Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs). At the University of Iowa, he developed the first nucleases that specifically cleaved Hepatitis B virus DNA, created bioinformatics tools, and published the Surveyor gene editing assay. As a faculty member at Georgia Tech and Emory, he conducted pioneering research on ZFNs, TAL effector nucleases (TALENs), and CRISPR, co-authoring highly cited publications and developed bioinformatic and machine learning tools such as PROGNOS, SAPTA, and COSMID. Additionally, the group initiated the hemoglobinopathies experiments with CRISPR Therapeutics that led to the development of Casgevy. Dr. Cradick's extensive experience also includes developing assays and computational methods for IND submissions and clinical trials. For more information and access to his online talks, papers, and consulting projects, please visit GeneEditingFrontiers.com.
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