Mitchell O’Connell is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of Rochester. Mitchell obtained his PhD at the University of Sydney with Joel Mackay, where he used biochemistry and combinatorial techniques to design artificial RNA-targeting zinc fingers. Mitchell then was a postdoc with Jennifer Doudna at UC Berkeley, where he studied RNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas systems. In 2017, he moved to the University of Rochester to set up a lab, which focuses on the development of CRISPR-based tools to study RNA, and understanding the role of membrane proteins that reside within CRISPR-Cas and other anti-phage defense systems.