Lucas Harrington

Lucas Harrington is an American scientist and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of, and president of therapeutics at, Mammoth Biosciences, a biotechnology company engineering ultracompact CRISPR systems to develop therapies for genetic diseases.
==Early Life and Education==
Harrington was born on March 28, 1991, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Missouri. He recalls having an early interest in science. As a teenager, he worked for a startup that made disease models with Zebrafish, and was an admirer of American biologist E.O. Wilson.
Harrington completed his undergraduate studies in chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis in 2013. He began his doctforal studies in 2014 at the University of California, Berkeley, under the mentorship of CRISPR co-inventor and Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna. During that time, he researched novel, compact CRISPR systems and their properties with fellow Mammoth Biosciences co-founder Janice Chen, who was also a graduate student at Berkeley.
Nearing the completion of their graduate studies, Harrington and Chen became motivated to start a company based on their research that translated their findings into real-world applications. They were then introduced to Trevor Martin – at the time, a graduate student at Stanford University – by Doudna. Martin was also interested in starting a company based on the foundational technology of CRISPR and novel Cas systems. In 2017, Harrington, Doudna, Martin and Chen co-founded Mammoth Biosciences. And in 2018, Harrington completed his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology.
==Career==
In addition to being co-founder, Harrington is the president of therapeutics at Mammoth. The company and its researchers apply metagenomics-based discovery techniques to identify novel CRISPR-Cas systems, such as the ultracompact systems Casphi and Cas14, as well as CRISPR+ technologies – such as base editing, epigenetic editing and gene writing – which demonstrate the potential for in vivo therapeutic genome editing.
Mammoth Biosciences announced partnerships with Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Bayer to further develop the in vivo applications of the company’s technology in 2022. Mammoth, which is currently valued at approximately $1 Billion, also researches possible applications of CRISPR-based diagnostics.
Along with Mammoth, Harrington is also a co-founder of SciFounders Capital, a fund and incubator that seeks to support scientists interested in starting and building companies by lending monetary support and mentorship to ideation phase, pre-seed and seed-stage companies. 
==Awards and Recognitions==
In November 2018, Harrington was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2019 List.
In April 2023, Harrington was named to the San Francisco Business Times’ 40 Under 40 List.
==Selected Works==
* Chen, Janice S.; Ma, Enbo; Harrington, Lucas B.; Da Costa, Maria; Tian, Xinran; Palefsky, Joel M.; Doudna Jennifer A. (February 15, 2018). “CRISPR-Cas12a target binding unleashes indiscriminate single-stranded DNase activity.” Science 360 (6387): 436-439. DOI:10.1126/science.aar6245
* Harrington, Lucas B.; Burstein, David; Chen, Janice S.; Paez-Espino, David; Ma, Enbo; Witte, Isaac P.; Cofsky, Joshua C.; Kyrpides, Nikos C.; Banfields, Jillian F.; Doudna, Jennifer A. (October 18, 2018). “Programmed DNA destruction by miniature CRISPR-Cas14 enzymes.” Science. 362 (6416): 839-842. DOI:10.1126/science.aav4294
Category:1991 births
Category:People from Wallingford
Category:American people
Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Scientists
Category:Entrepreneurs