Kevin Zhao

Kevin Zhao is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Qi Biodesign, a company dedicated to the advancement of precision genome editing in new crop breeding. Kevin graduated with his PhD from Harvard University and the Broad Institute working in the lab of Professor David Liu on precision genome editing technologies. He developed a rapid and continuous protein directed evolution system and used this method to develop new and efficient base editors. Following his graduation, he went to China and partnered with Professor Caixia Gao and together they co-founded Qi Biodesign. Kevin has published studies in Cell and Nature Biotechnology as a co-corresponding author. Kevin has been selected to be on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Pacific and MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia lists. In 2024, Qi Biodesign was granted two genome edited biosafety approvals by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and one USDA genome edited product RSR deregulation.