Arena BioWorks

J. Keith Joung is a leading innovator in the fields of gene and epigenetic editing. He is currently a Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks and was formerly the Robert B. Colvin, M.D. Endowed Chair in Pathology and a Pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).  He is also a Professor of Pathology (on leave, 2023-2024) at Harvard Medical School. Joung has been a pioneer in the development of important technologies for targeted gene editing and epigenetic editing of human cells. He has received numerous awards including the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Outstanding Achievement award in 2023, the 2022 Samsung Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Project R01 Award, the MGH Research Scholar Award, an NIH R35 MIRA (Maximizing Investigators Research Award), election into the American Association of University Pathologists and designation as a “Highly Cited Researcher” for eight consecutive years (2016-2023) by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. Joung has co-founded and advises multiple biotechnology companies, including Beam Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Nvelop Therapeutics, Pairwise Plants, SeQure Dx, and Verve Therapeutics. He holds a Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.