Meet the Editor-in-Chief of GEN Biotechnology: Hana El-Samad, PhD

What It Covers

GEN Biotechnology editor-in-chief Hana El-Samad, UCSF professor and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub senior investigator, outlines the vision for a new peer-reviewed journal launching in early 2022, covering the full biotechnology ecosystem from foundational research to applied therapeutics, sustainability, and diversity in STEM.

Key Questions Answered

• •Interdisciplinary entry into biotech: Researchers from non-biology backgrounds can contribute meaningfully by mapping existing expertise onto biological problems. El-Samad applied control and dynamical systems engineering — the same feedback-loop mathematics behind autopilots and thermostats — to explain cellular robustness, demonstrating that engineering frameworks can generate novel biological hypotheses unavailable to traditionally trained biologists.
• •Precision biology as a research tool: Beyond therapeutic applications, synthetic biology circuits can be engineered specifically to interface with and surgically perturb endogenous cellular pathways, enabling precise dynamic readouts that passive observation cannot achieve. El-Samad calls this "precision biology" — using purpose-built circuits to dissect existing evolved circuits with controllable, reproducible interventions.
• •Living cell therapeutics design framework: The UCSF Cell Design Institute, co-led by El-Samad, Wendell Lim, and Cole Roybi, focuses on building general-purpose biological circuit components that program cells to sense their environment, compute responses in real time, and deliver targeted therapeutic payloads — applicable across cancer, neuroinflammation, and tissue regeneration without rebuilding platforms per disease.
• •Diversity as an innovation multiplier: A 2021 Science editorial co-authored by El-Samad and Lola Eniola-Adefeso to OSTP director Eric Lander argued that diverse teams produce measurably more innovative outcomes than homogeneous ones. The letter moved past diagnostic studies, calling directly for representative leadership, accountability systems for discrimination and harassment, and inclusive STEM education as concrete policy priorities.
• •Bridging siloed biotech disciplines: Practitioners in synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and bioelectronics rarely encounter each other's advances within a single publication venue. GEN Biotechnology targets this gap by publishing across all biotechnology branches simultaneously, aiming to cross-hybridize fields and surface foundational-to-applied translation failures — cases where proven technologies never reach real-world deployment — as explicit editorial content.