Dr. Piyush K. Jain

As a Shah Rising Star Professor and Associate Professor at UF, Dr. Jain’s team is developing next-generation diagnostics and genome-editing technologies. His work is routinely published in high-impact journals and has been highlighted by over 10,000 news websites including a TEDx talk. He has over 40 pending or issued patents and co-founded multiple startups, including CasNx.

His research endeavors have been generously funded, with his projects securing 15 NIH, CDC, and USDA grants, raising substantial funding of up to $20 million. Dr. Jain has been honored as the Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the Exxon Mobil Gator Alumni Faculty Endowed Professor, the Shah Rising Star Endowed Professor, the UF Provost Excellence Award for Assistant Professors, and the NIH MIRA-ESI award (R35) by the NIGMS.

Dr. Jain received a bachelor’s in pharmacy from India and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Prof. Simon Friedman‘s lab, where he pioneered light-responsive biochemical tools. Subsequently, as a postdoc at MIT in Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia’s lab, Dr. Jain continued to develop light-responsive nanosensors and gene-editing technologies.