Reza Kalhor is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering. He received his PhD in Molecular and Computational Biology from University of Southern California, where he studied the relationship between genome function and its 3D structure. His postdoctoral training in genetics and synthetic biology at the Harvard Medical School and Wyss Institute focused on storage of digital and biological information in DNA. He joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering faculty in 2019, and is a 2020 David and Lucile Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering.

His research seeks to advance our understanding of continuously dynamic biological processes, such as development and cancer formation, by recording cells’ experiences in their genomes. To accomplish this objective, his group develops: (A) molecular technologies that write cellular experiences to their genomic DNA, (B) sequencing strategies that read out written information with high cellular and spatial resolution, and (C) computational methods that reconstruct the underlying biological processes based on recorded information. Their work draws on genomics, molecular engineering, CRISPR-based genome editing, and computational approaches to address brain development, developmental anomalies, and cancer.