A microbiologist by training, Wenyan has developed revolutionary technologies that enhance the precision, throughput and resolution for bacterial genomics and transcriptomics over the last decade. These include development of the first CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and transcriptional modulation technology in bacteria (Jiang*, Bikard* et al, Nature Biotechnology, 2013; Bikard*, Jiang* et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 2013), a high-throughput bacterial functional genomic platform called CALM (Jiang et al, Cell, 2020), and the first bacterial high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology called PETRI-seq (Blattman*, Jiang* et al, Nature Microbiology, 2020). Adopted by many labs around the world, these technologies have substantially expanded scientists’ ability to solve fundamental and applied questions in complex microbial systems.

Notably, Wenyan and his colleagues were among the very first to develop CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in 2013. This collective effort has led to a wealth of technological development, novel biological findings and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020.

Outside of biomedical sciences, Wenyan is a learner of foreign languages, and a writer of prose, poetry and options contracts.

Research experiences:

• 2023-, Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY

• 2023-, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY

• 2017-2022, Postdoctoral research fellow (with Saeed Tavazoie), Columbia University, New York, NY

Education:

• 2010-2016, PhD in Biological Sciences (with Luciano Marraffini, Rockefeller University and HHMI, New York, NY)

• 2006-2010, BS, Biochemistry, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY

Awards and Fellowships:

• 2021-present, NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)

• 2021, Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientist

• 2017-2020, Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship

• 2016, Weintraub Graduate Student Award

• 2016, Honorable mention, Nat Sternberg Thesis Prize