Courtney Young, Ph.D. '18

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Courtney Young, Ph.D. '18, co-founder and chief executive officer of Myogene Bio, has won a Biocom Catalyst award and also been named to MIT Technology Review's 35 Under 35 list.

The genesis of Myogene Bio, a San Diego company with cofounders that either all attended or work at UCLA, took place when Young was a senior in high school and her two-year-old cousin, Christopher, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder. She made it a goal to find a cure.

According to MIT Technology Review, Young's "recent work with gene editing offers one of the most promising advances in decades.

"Muscular dystrophy results from a mutation that prevents the body from producing proteins needed to create and sustain healthy muscle. Using CRISPR-Cas9, Young and her team at MyoGene Bio can change a patient’s DNA, restoring the ability to create the necessary proteins.

"Young and her team can target a commonly mutated portion of a gene and remove it," the article continues, "after which the DNA can repair itself naturally. Although CRISPR-Cas9 has been used to address genetic mutations for a decade, Young’s research has pushed the boundaries, proving that far larger deletions are possible than previously thought."

Young attended Johns Hopkins as an undergraduate and earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology, receiving several prestigious awards in the process.