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Leadership and Core Staff

The GREAT Core is under the direction of CB Gurumurthy, MVSC, PhD, Exec MBA and its operations are managed by Marcin Szpila, MSc.  

Dr. Gurumurthy brings over 15 years of experience in directing a mouse genome engineering core and has led one of the most successful and impactful facilities of its kind globally. He is a professor in the department of Cell and Molecular Biology and an internationally recognized expert in CRISPR genome editing and mouse molecular genetics. He is a co-developer of two landmark technologies – Easi-CRISPR and GONAD – which have significantly simplified and accelerated the generation of mouse models. Publications describing these methodshave been cited over 1,100 times, accessed more than 130,000 times and adopted by hundreds of laboratories globally. Dr. Gurumurthy has delivered over 125 invited talks, keynote presentations and workshops across 15 countries in Europe, Asia and Australia. His contributions have been widely recognized, including receiving the Outstanding Genomic Innovator Award from the NHGRI. He continues to advance innovation in genome editing and train the next generation of scientists.  

Mr. Szpilais a Research Scientist in the department of Cell and Molecular Biology. He brings twelve years of experience in mouse embryology, specializing in the creation of gene edited mouse models, assisted reproductive techniques and the management of large mouse colonies. To date, he has generated over 110 mutant mouse lines using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. He has injected 15,000 embryos with an average survival rate exceeding 85%. Additionally, he is skilled in performing in vitro fertilization for various purposes, such as rederivation, rapid colony expansion and fertility testing. Over the course of his career, he has optimized multiple protocols to increase the efficiency of various procedures.