Erik received his B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from Newcastle University, M.A. in Biotechnology from Columbia University, and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from ETH Zürich. In his Ph.D. work Erik identified novel genomic safe harbors — sites suitable for safe and long-term therapeutic gene insertion and expression. As a Technology Development Fellow, he is exploring and validating new genome editing tools for efficient insertion of large genes into genomic safe harbors, with applications in gene and cell therapies as well as mammalian synthetic biology.