Amal Eltayib — OMEGA: designing safer multi-gene CRISPR therapies

Amal built OMEGA, a computational tool that optimizes guide-RNA selection for multiplex CRISPR-Cas9 arrays — systems that edit several genes at once. Multiplex editing is what opens the door to treating complex, polygenic conditions like diabetes, and sharper guide-RNA design means safer therapeutics for the patients who would one day depend on them.

At the Festival, it was the people that changed things. With only around 50 Champions selected each year, she found the space to connect with peers her own age doing extraordinary work — friendships she describes as lifelong, many of whom she still talks to more than a year later.

Now an incoming freshman at Harvard College — drawn to biotechnology, data science, and finance — Amal has already conducted research at a Harvard-affiliated lab, and plans to keep building OMEGA or join new ventures on campus.