Overview

Gender

male

Feng Zhang joined the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard as a core member in 2011. Dr. Zhang is also an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and an assistant professor at MIT with a joint appointment in the departments of brain and cognitive sciences and biological engineering. As a student, he played a major role in the development of optogenetics, a technology that allows the brain’s electrical activity to be controlled with light-sensitive proteins. He is now working to extend this molecular engineering approach to other aspects of brain function, such as gene expression, and to develop new approaches to understanding and eventually treating brain diseases.

Dr. Zhang is a Searle Scholar and has received both a Director’s Transformative Research Award and a Directors’ Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health. In 2012, he shared the UNC/Perl Prize for his role in the development of optogenetics.

Feng Zhang a Co-Founder at Arbor Biotechnologies.

Dr. Zhang holds an A.B. in chemistry and physics from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.