Victor M. Tan is a molecular biologist with interests in genetics and pharmacology. He graduated from the Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics (MIMG) program at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a PhD student at Dr. Victor Jin’s laboratory at Rutgers – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is currently working on therapeutic applications of the modular CRISPR/RNA-aptamer base editing system called Pin-point™.
Base editing is a precision genome technology that can introduce targeted nucleotide modifications without the dangerous need to introduce double stranded breaks in the genome. This is achieved by the combination of a nuclease deficient Cas9 protein and a DNA deaminase, such as cytidine deaminase. This new technology holds great potential as a more effective, yet less dangerous gene editing tool when compared to previous technologies. Victor’s work involves using the modular base editing system Pin-point™, for therapeutic and pharmacological purposes in the fields of immunology, development, and cancer