Francisco was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and his PhD in Biology from MIT. As a PhD student with Tyler Jacks, he was among the first to use CRISPR to rapidly and systematically interrogate cancer drivers in vivo and to identify Keap1 mutant-specific dependencies in lung adenocarcinoma. As a HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellow with Scott W. Lowe, he has developed and applied methods to quantitatively interrogate cancer variants using CRISPR base editing, as well as approaches to chart tumor evolution using CRISPR and single cell RNA sequencing. His long-term goal is to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which genetic variation shapes normal physiology and disease, particularly in the context of cancer. Outside of the lab, Francisco enjoys collecting and playing rare vinyl records and exploring everything that NYC has to offer with his wife, their 3 year-old son, and their English Bulldog. Francisco will be starting his lab at MIT in early 2022.