Omenn-Darling Bioethics Lecture 2026: Feng Zhang

Why It Matters

Scalable, low‑toxicity delivery systems could broaden gene‑therapy applications, but they demand robust ethical frameworks to guide responsible deployment.

Key Takeaways

• Genetic medicine aims for modular vehicles and programmable payloads.
• Delivery remains bottleneck; LNPs and AAVs have limitations.
• Endogenous GAG-derived protein capsids offer scalable, fully loaded carriers.
• Successful muscle injection shows Cre mRNA delivery with low toxicity.
• Bioethical dialogue essential as gene editing expands therapeutic horizons.

Summary

The fourth Omenn‑Darling Bioethics Lecture at Princeton featured Feng Zhang, a leading architect of CRISPR technology, to explore the ethical and policy dimensions of today’s rapidly evolving genetic‑medicine landscape. Zhang framed bioengineering as a programmable, modular system composed of delivery vehicles and therapeutic payloads, emphasizing the promise of precise, patient‑specific interventions.

He highlighted that while payload technologies such as CAR‑T and gene editors have matured, delivery remains the primary obstacle. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and adeno‑associated viruses (AAVs) each have trade‑offs—LNPs scale well but are large and less tissue‑penetrant; AAVs are small and targetable but costly and immunogenic. To address this, Zhang’s lab engineered protein‑based nanoparticles derived from endogenous retroviral GAG proteins, which self‑assemble around mRNA or Cas9 RNPs, offering fully loaded, scalable carriers.

Experimental data showed efficient Cre‑mRNA delivery to mouse muscle fibers via intramuscular injection of these capsids, achieving robust reporter activation with markedly lower toxicity than comparable LNP formulations. Zhang also referenced the student‑run Princeton Bioethics Exchange and thanked the interdisciplinary partners that make such dialogues possible.

If these delivery platforms can be generalized, they could unlock gene‑editing therapies for tissues beyond liver, blood, and eye, accelerating clinical translation while raising pressing ethical questions about safety, equitable access, and long‑term societal impact.

Original Description

Princeton’s Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute welcomed Feng Zhang of MIT for the 2026 Omenn-Darling Lecture in Ethics and Policy in Bioengineering on April 9, 2026. The title of his lecture was “Exploration of Biological Diversity.”

About Feng Zhang:

Zhang is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, co-director of the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics at MIT, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, and a professor at MIT, with joint appointments in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.