Skip to main content

Stanford Bioengineering & ChEM-H

Principal Investigator

  • Lei (Stanley) Qi, Ph.D.

    Lei (Stanley) Qi, Ph.D.

    Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University | Institute Scholar, ChEM-H | Biohub Investigator
    (publishes as Lei S. Qi)

    Profile

    [Stanford Profile] · [Google Scholar] · [PubMed] · [ORCID]

    Bio

    Lei (Stanley) Qi develops programmable control of dynamic and spatial cell state to uncover biological principles and enable therapeutic cell design.

    Our research integrates CRISPR-based perturbation, live-cell and super-resolution imaging, and computational design to uncover principles that connect molecular interactions to cellular memory and adaptation to emergent system behaviors. Our work spans foundational tool building and principle-driven biological discovery, with applications in engineered immune cells and neural systems. A defining emphasis is building closed-loop frameworks that combine perturbation with real-time measurement to enable causal and predictive control.

    Lei (Stanley) Qi is best known for pioneering nuclease-deactivated Cas9 (dCas9)–based technologies that enabled CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and for subsequent innovations in live-cell imaging and 3D genome and transcriptome organization. Qi received his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Tsinghua University (2005) and his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley (2012). He was a Systems Biology Fellow at UCSF (2012–2014) and joined Stanford Bioengineering in 2014. His honors include the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, Pew Biomedical Scholar, Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator.

    Research at a glance

    • Programmable gene & epigenetic control — tools to write/erase regulatory states and map causal gene networks that govern cell identity. (Learn more: Research)
    • Spatial & dynamic genome/transcriptome organization — perturbation plus live imaging to connect nuclear/RNA organization to function in real time. (Learn more: Research)
    • Synthetic cell-cell communication (immune–neural interface) — principles and platforms to understand and engineer how interacting cells shape systems-level physiology and neurodegeneration. (Learn more: Research)

    Impact and translation

    A compact, nuclease-dead CRISPR epigenetic editor from this technology lineage has advanced to first-in-human clinical testing for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD; NCT06907875). This translational milestone reflects our goal: principle-driven platforms that are engineerable, durable, and deployable.

    Mentorship and opportunities

    The Qi Lab is interdisciplinary and engineering-forward. We value creative thinking, bold imagination, rigorous quantitative experiments, and projects that connect technology, mechanism, and quantitative biology. We are especially interested in trainees with strengths in original tool development, epigenetic and transcriptome engineering, live-cell imaging, spatial biology, computational modeling, and immune-neural systems.

    Interested in joining?

    Please see Contact for current opportunities and how to apply.