Kiran Musunuru, an Indian American scientist at the University of Pennsylvania has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the nation’s highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
Six other Penn experts are also among the 100 new members elected in the fields of genetics, anesthesiology, veterinary medicine, and reproductive health by current NAM members, according to a university release.
Musunuru, the Barry J. Gertz Professor for Translational Research, and co-director of the Penn Medicine/CHOP Orphan Disease Center, was recognized for the development of the first bespoke gene-editing therapy administered to an individual patient.
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Musunuru’s discovery of multiple novel genes and mechanisms involved in cardiovascular diseases, followed by pioneering work in creating somatic gene-editing therapies, contributed to the first demonstration of therapeutic base editing in human patients, according to the citation.
An actively practicing cardiologist and committed teacher, Musunuru’s, research focuses on the development of novel gene editing therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
He was among this year’s TIME100 Health—the people most influential in the world of health right now — for “saving a baby from genetic disease” with Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nickla.
Musunuru has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Keystone Award, the American Heart Association’s Award of Meritorious Achievement and Joseph A. Vita Award.
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He has also received the American Philosophical Society’s Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation, the American Federation for Medical Research’s Outstanding Investigator Award, Harvard University’s Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Jane M. Glick Graduate Student Teaching Award.
Musunuru recently served as Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine and is the current Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Human Genetics. He is author of The CRISPR Generation: The Story of the World’s First Gene-Edited Babies and Genome Editing: A Practical Guide to Research and Clinical Applications.
Seven new NAM members from Penn bring the university’s membership in the prestigious group of health care thought leaders, clinicians, and researchers to 124 total.