Patrick D. Hsu (born in 1993) is an American bioengineer, entrepreneur, and investor who works in the areas of CRISPR, machine learning, synthetic biology, and gene therapy. He is an assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a co-founder of Arc Institute, a research organization that focuses on speeding up discoveries in medicine.
Biography
Hsu earned his bachelor's degree in bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He later earned his PhD at Harvard University, where he worked under the guidance of Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. During his PhD, he studied early CRISPR-based gene-editing technologies, including one of the first examples of using Cas9 to edit human genes.
After finishing his PhD at age 21, Hsu led projects that discovered new methods at Editas Medicine. At 23, he started his own research team as a Salk Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. There, he developed CRISPR-Cas13 systems to study and modify RNA in cells. Later, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where his lab works on AI-based models for biology and creates new gene-editing tools. His research has been cited over 65,000 times, according to Google Scholar.
In 2020, Hsu helped start Fast Grants, which provides money to scientists working on research that could help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He also co-founded the Arc Institute, a nonprofit research group focused on advancing discoveries in biology and medicine, along with Stanford University professor Silvana Konermann and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.
Achievements and recognition
In 2017, Hsu was chosen for the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 list. In 2015, he was included in Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science for his work on CRISPR technology. His laboratory’s discovery of tools that can be programmed to edit DNA was listed as one of the 5 Important Medical Breakthroughs of 2024 by Forbes. Additionally, tools developed by scientists at Arc that help understand DNA were named one of The Most Important Breakthroughs of 2024 by The Atlantic.
Research
Hsu's research focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve biology and develop genome editing tools such as recombinases and CRISPR. This includes using AI to create better cell-based models. His work has led to several important discoveries, including:
- DNA foundation models that help scientists model and design DNA sequences in different ways, published on the cover of the journal Science in November 2024.
- AI-driven gene editing, where computers are used to create new gene editors that work better than natural enzymes.
- Bridge RNAs for programmable recombination, which allow for precise changes to DNA without using traditional tools. In 2025, his research group reported in Science the ability to change up to 1 million bases of the human genome.
- "Jumping gene" enzymes, which allow DNA to be inserted or removed without using CRISPR, a new method published in Nature in 2024.
- CRISPR-based DNA and RNA-targeting technologies, which help create tools that are now widely used for editing DNA.
Commercial interests
Hsu is a co-founder of Stylus Medicine, a science company that raised $85 million in 2025 to turn gene insertion technology into products developed in his lab. He is also a co-founder of Terrain Biosciences, a startup that uses AI models and technologies to design and make RNA.
Since September 2025, Hsu has worked as a Venture Partner with Thrive Capital. As an angel investor, Hsu has supported companies such as Varda Space Industries and Cradle Bio.