| Rachel Haurwitz | |
| Birth Name: | Rachel Elizabeth Haurwitz |
| Birth Date: | 1985 5, mf=yes |
| Birth Place: | Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Fields: | Biochemistry |
| Workplaces: | Caribou Biosciences |
| Thesis Title: | The CRISPR endoribonuclease Csy4 utilizes unusual sequence- and structure-specific mechanisms to recognize and process crRNAs |
| Thesis Url: | https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0rh5940p |
| Thesis Year: | 2012 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Jennifer Doudna |
Rachel Elizabeth Haurwitz (born May 20, 1985) is an American biochemist and structural biologist. She is the co-founder, chief executive officer, and president of Caribou Biosciences, a genome editing company.
Haurwitz was born on May 20, 1985. She grew up in Austin, Texas.[1] Her mother is an elementary school teacher and her father, an environmental journalist.[2]
Haurwitz began researching RNA during her undergraduate years.[3] She attended Harvard College where she earned an undergraduate degree. In 2007, she began doctoral studies at University of California, Berkeley. At the age of 21,[4] Haurwitz began working as a graduate student in Jennifer Doudna's laboratory, in 2008 where she completed her doctorate in molecular and cell biology.[5] Haurwitz originally intended on becoming an intellectual property lawyer for biotechnology patents but later chose to continue in science.[6]
In 2011, Haurwitz and Doudna co-founded Caribou Biosciences, a gene editing spinout-startup company.[7] Haurwitz is the company's CEO and president. She holds several patents for CRISPR-based technologies. The firm was initially housed in the basement of the building that housed Doudna's laboratory. The company supports the commercialization[8] of CRISPR technology in healthcare and agriculture.[9] Its researchers explore issues in antimicrobial resistance, food scarcity, and vaccine shortages. The company licensed Berkeley's CRISPR patent and deals with agricultural and pharmaceutical companies and research firms.[10] In 2018, Haurwitz announced that the firm was shifting focus on medicine and developing cancer therapies targeting microbes.
She is a long-distance runner and is training for a marathon. Haurwitz knits as a hobby.
In 2021, Haurwitz was selected as a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst. As part of the program, she attended the annual New Economy Forum held in Singapore, and the Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst Retreat that same year.[11]