Ailong Ke joins the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry as a Professor. Ailong received his B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1995, and his PhD in Biophysics with Cynthia Wolberger from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2002. After completing his post-doctoral training with Jennifer Doudna at UC Berkeley, Ailong was hired as an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in 2005 and became a Full Professor in 2017. Ailong’s research focuses on the mechanistic dissection of RNA-guided processes, such as CRISPR-Cas, and the structure and function of RNA in general. He further drives the mechanistic understanding into synthetic biology applications, including novel genome editing methods in eukaryotic cells. Ailong received the Cornell Provost Research Innovation award in 2018 and the RNA Society Mid-Career award in 2019. He was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2024. Please stop by Ailong’s office in Bass 238 to welcome him to MB&B!
Ghazia Abbas joins the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry as a Lecturer. Ghazia recently received her PhD from Wesleyan University. Her primary focus lies in understanding the mechanisms by which an olfactory neuronal cell type can undergo transformation due to perturbations of an epigenetic modifier, thus contributing to our understanding of cellular development and identity regulation. Please stop by Ghazia’s office in Bass 420 to welcome her to MB&B!