--- title: Stuart Orkin Is on the 2024 TIME100 List description: Find out why Stuart Orkin is one of the 100 most influential people of 2024. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-17T10:55:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:28:49.365Z og:title: Stuart Orkin: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 og:description: Find out why Stuart Orkin is on this year’s list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77589e529366ed2d/698a55b79d83e8786ab99f92/time-100-2024-Stuart-Orkin-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Stuart Orkin: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stuart Orkin: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 twitter:description: Find out why Stuart Orkin is on this year’s list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77589e529366ed2d/698a55b79d83e8786ab99f92/time-100-2024-Stuart-Orkin-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 17, 2024 # Stuart Orkin ## Video: See Everyone on the TIME100 2024 list [Watch (HLS stream): See Everyone on the TIME100 2024 list](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/73p9kgIN.m3u8) (1:59)  _Published 2024-04-17_ by Alice Park  Sam Ogden—Dana Farber Cancer Institute When Stuart Orkin began his career as a research scientist, it wasn’t clear whether genetic diseases could ever be cured. Nearly 50 years later, Orkin’s research has led to the first gene therapy using CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease. Researchers knew that the disorder was caused by changes in the DNA code for the hemoglobin gene. It turned red blood cells from smooth disks into sticky, flattened, sickle-shaped cells that could clog up blood vessels and lead to life-threatening blockages. Orkin discovered a way to take advantage of a natural source of healthy globin—a genetic sequence that is turned on during fetal development but is silenced in adults. Researchers at CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals [turned Orkin’s discovery](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41573-023-00188-5) into a treatment that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last December. The therapy uses the gene-editing tool CRISPR to turn the fetal-hemoglobin gene back on, giving patients more healthy blood cells and potentially curing them of their disease. But Orkin isn’t resting on his laurels. The therapy remains financially out of reach for most people, so he’s focused on finding a way to boost fetal hemoglobin with a pill. “We solved some of the problem, but really haven’t solved what we set out to solve, which is how to make not just a few people but a lot of people better,” he says. _Park is a TIME senior correspondent_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/"},"headline":"Stuart Orkin","datePublished":"2024-04-17T10:55:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:28:49.365Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","2024TIME100","T100Pioneers2024"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77589e529366ed2d/698a55b79d83e8786ab99f92/time-100-2024-Stuart-Orkin-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77589e529366ed2d/698a55b79d83e8786ab99f92/time-100-2024-Stuart-Orkin-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/","name":"Stuart Orkin"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See Everyone on the TIME100 2024 list","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/73p9kgIN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-04-17T11:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/73p9kgIN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/","duration":"PT1M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964969/stuart-orkin-2/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```