Samagya Banskota

Gene therapy has the potential to treat a wide range of otherwise intractable diseases by making precise edits to the genome. But the most common method used to deliver gene-editing components involves adeno-associated viruses, which can result in unintended, “off-target” edits. Samagya Banskota, 32, has co-invented a more efficient delivery system using engineered virus-like particles. “We now have a system that can safely and effectively deliver genome editors to multiple tissue and organ types,” Banskota says. That should make it easier to develop therapies for a variety of genetic disorders.