Edwin N. Neumann

Key facts

• First author of 'Brainwide silencing of prion protein by AAV-mediated delivery of an engineered compact epigenetic editor', Science vol 384 issue 6703, published online 2024-06-28.
• Affiliations on that paper are the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge MA, and the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT.
• Described by MIT and Whitehead as a graduate student in the Weissman lab and co-first author with postdoc Tessa Bertozzi, who led engineering and application of the editor.
• Credited specifically with the activation design: joining sections of DNMT3A partner molecules to a zinc finger protein so that the cell's existing methyltransferases are recruited to methylate the target gene.
• The editor is small enough to fit an AAV because it recruits endogenous methyltransferases instead of carrying a Cas9, and it includes a self-silencing element that limits how long it is expressed.
• Reported effect in mice: a single intravenous dose of an AAV carrying the zinc finger guided editor removed more than 80 percent of prion protein in the brain, against earlier work indicating that about 21 percent lowering can already improve symptoms.
• Coauthors on the prion paper include Tessa Bertozzi, Ben Deverman, Eric Minikel, Sonia Vallabh and Jonathan Weissman, which ties the Whitehead side of the work to the Broad side.
• Funding listed for the prion paper includes HHMI and NIH awards from NHGRI, NIBIB, NINDS and NIMH; the Broad account also names the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund.
• Most recent indexed output is a bioRxiv preprint on the functions of viral microproteins posted 2026-08-24 with Weissman as last author, which suggests continued work in the same lab but on a different subject; the record carries no affiliation strings.
• Other publications are outside prion biology: Sci Adv 2025-08-13 on the evolution of a plant halogenase, and Stem Cell Reports 2023-11-22 on the DOT1L partner AF10 and H3K79 methylation patterning, which is the chromatin background behind the editor design.
• No publication or preprint with him as an author in 2025 or 2026 is on prion disease or on CHARM, and the 2025 to 2026 CHARM literature that does exist is review and commentary work by other groups.
• Stated next steps for the programme, not attributed to him personally, are tuning for safety and efficacy, modular and scalable production, further mouse therapeutic testing and work toward clinical trial readiness.

Timeline

1. 2023Stem Cell Reports paper on the DOT1L interaction partner AF10 published.
2. 2024MIT and Whitehead news announcements of CHARM describe him as a graduate student in the Weissman lab and co-first author.
3. 2024Science paper on brainwide silencing of prion protein with a compact epigenetic editor published, Neumann first author.
4. 2024bioRxiv preprint of that halogenase study posted.
5. 2025Sci Adv paper on the stepwise evolution of a plant halogenase published.
6. 2026bioRxiv preprint on the diverse functions of viral microproteins posted, with Neumann as a coauthor and Weissman as last author.