About Cromer Lab

The research interest of our lab lies at the intersection of CRISPR-based genome editing and cell engineering with a special focus on hematopoietic stem cells and red blood cells. Our mission is to close the gap between synthetic biology and the clinic in order to address current bottlenecks in treating the hemoglobinopathies and other hematopoietic disorders.

In our work, we think about the genome as computer code. In the instance of disease, the code is somehow broken. While we can correct disease-causing typos, we believe there is untapped potential to cure disease by engineering novel properties into cells. Therefore, all of our work in some way attempts to answer the question – if you could introduce new code to any cell in the body, what would you write and where?