Professor Pamela Silver is one of the founding members of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and is the Elliot T and Onie H Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology.

Her lab is building synthetic cells that act as sensors, memory devices, bio-computers, producers of high value commodities and energy from the sun, and novel subsystems such as proteins with designed properties for therapeutic use. Among her most recent innovations are bacteria that can sense and respond to gut inflammation and the Bionic Leaf, which couples sunlight capture to bioproduction at an efficiency exceeding plants. Understanding how to program cells in a rational way will have value in stem cell design, drug therapy and the environment. Professor Silver is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and was the first Director of the Harvard University Graduate Program.