George Church has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Jeffrey Epstein. He apologised publicly in 2019, said the funding to his lab ended in 2007, and said his main concern was for the people who had been hurt. This page documents the money, the meetings that continued after the conviction, and — newly, from the 2026 release — what Epstein was actually trying to obtain from genomics.
The distinction this page turns on.
Harvard took $9.1 million. Krauss took $250,000 and defended him publicly. Brockman made the introductions. In each case the science was incidental — what Epstein bought was standing.
With Church the science was the point. Recoding life, germline editing, genome sequencing at scale, life extension. This is the one place in the archive where Epstein’s stated ambitions and a funded scientist’s actual capabilities overlap directly.
What is documented. Unrestricted funding to Church’s lab from 2005 to 2007. Roughly $2 million reaching his research from Epstein and others in his orbit, per Harvard’s own report. Meetings and phone calls that continued for a decade after the guilty plea.
What Church has said about the eugenics question. “I never heard anything about it. I’d have thought that I would have been involved in that kind of conversation, but it didn’t tend to go in that direction.” He added: “I think people tend to behave themselves around me.”
That answer deserves to be taken seriously. Church has prioritised ethics unusually — he invited a philosopher into his lab to flag bioethics issues and has taught a research ethics course for years, which is rare at his level of prominence. A longtime associate told STAT they were surprised he became involved with Epstein at all, for exactly that reason.
And the 2026 material complicates it. Not because it shows Church did anything wrong — it does not — but because it shows what Epstein was pursuing through the relationship, which was more specific than “interest in science.”
What Epstein wanted, per this archive: to seed the human race with his DNA, to have his brain frozen for revival, and — per CNN’s February 2026 reporting — genetic testing to explore extending life.
What Church does: CRISPR gene editing, the Personal Genome Project, synthetic biology, and public advocacy that germline modification should not be off the table.
No other funded scientist in this archive sits that close to the stated ambition.
What he was interested in →
Section 01
The Record
George McDonald Church. He becomes one of the most consequential molecular biologists alive — a developer of early DNA sequencing methods, a pioneer of CRISPR gene editing, and the founder of the Personal Genome Project.
Epstein gives $6.5 million to Martin Nowak’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics — five years before the guilty plea. Many of Church’s meetings with Epstein took place there. Church and Nowak collaborated on, among other things, the evolution of CRISPR-based gene drives.
Epstein provides unrestricted funding to Church’s own lab. Church has said this was the last of it — 2007, a year before the plea. Harvard’s own report referenced roughly $2 million reaching Church’s research from Epstein and others in his orbit.
Epstein pleads guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and serves 13 months. The meetings and phone calls continue.
Church publishes his book on synthetic biology and “recoding life.” He has argued publicly that heritable changes to embryo genomes should not be off the table — a position that, as STAT put it, might have made him a sounding board for eugenic ambitions.
Meetings and phone calls with Epstein across the decade after the conviction. Church has said Epstein made little impression on him and that the meetings “weren’t really about Jeffrey — they were about the scientists who were talking with each other.”
In his first public comments, Church tells STAT: “I certainly apologize for my poor awareness and judgment.” And: “There should have been more conversations about, should we be doing this, should we be helping this guy? There was just a lot of nerd tunnel vision.” He adds: “My main concern is for the people who have been hurt.”
CNN reports that Epstein paid for novel genetic testing in an apparent effort to explore extending life. Harvard geneticist Joseph Thakuria said he was introduced to Epstein by Church — as a potential research subject for the Personal Genome Project.
Released correspondence shows extensive discussion of research involving Epstein and the Personal Genome Project — from a skin biopsy through to induced pluripotent stem cell proposals — and mentions of an unproven stem cell clinic. Church has not been accused of any wrongdoing and did not respond to a request for comment.
Section 02
The Personal Genome Project
This is the newest material in the file, and it changes the shape of the relationship.
Until 2026 the understanding was straightforward: Epstein funded Church’s lab, attended meetings, and got scientific standing out of it. Research funding, nothing more.
The released correspondence shows something else. Extensive discussion of research involving Epstein himself and the Personal Genome Project — running from a skin biopsy through to proposals involving induced pluripotent stem cells — and mentions of an unproven stem cell clinic.
And the introduction. Harvard geneticist Joseph Thakuria told CNN he was introduced to Epstein by George Church, as a potential research subject for the Personal Genome Project.
Epstein was not only funding the genomics. He was, on this account, a participant in it — and paying for novel genetic testing in an apparent effort to explore extending his life.
What this does and does not establish. It does not establish that Church knew what Epstein intended, that any improper research took place, or that Church did anything beyond enrolling a willing participant in a public genomics project. He has not been accused of anything and did not respond to CNN.
What it does establish is that the relationship was operational rather than merely social — and that the thing Epstein was buying was not reputation but access to the technology itself.
Section 03
Why the Scientists Stayed
Church is the only funded scientist in this archive who tried to answer that question publicly and candidly. His explanation is the most useful thing any of them said, and it is quoted here at length because it describes the mechanism rather than defending himself.
Church’s own most generous interpretation of why so many scientists stayed — noting that Epstein “seemed to be welcomed back into society after he served his sentence.”
“If it’s a rich person [asking about their research], that’s cool.” Scientists, he said, are as vulnerable to attention from prominent people as anyone.
Scientists “often assume development departments have vetted potential donors.” Harvard had barred Epstein as a donor in 2008 — and $9.5 million arrived anyway under other names.
Scientists, “myself included, are not very good” at screening out people.
The full quotation: “There should have been more conversations about, should we be doing this, should we be helping this guy? There was just a lot of nerd tunnel vision.”
It is the only phrase from any of the funded scientists that names the failure accurately. Not that they were deceived, and not that they were innocent — that the question of whether to take the money was never seriously asked.
One Method →
Section 04
Open Questions
Section 05
Sources
“Nerd Tunnel Vision”
Aug 2019. Church’s full apology, the Nowak meetings, the eugenics question, and why he says scientists failed to screen him out.
statnews.com →The Genetic Testing
Feb 2026. Epstein paying for novel genetic testing to explore extending life, and Thakuria’s account of the introduction.
cnn.com →From Skin Biopsy to iPS Cell Proposals
Feb 2026. The Personal Genome Project correspondence in the released files, and the stem cell clinic mentions.
ipscell.com →The Power of Saying No to Money
Sept 2019. Church on vetting, flattery, and why development departments were assumed to have done the work.
insidephilanthropy.com →The Research Ledger
Ten funded programmes audited against his stated aims — and the four that had no connection at all.
Read the report →Martin Nowak
The office, the key card, and the website page written at Epstein’s publicist’s request.
Read the profile →Harvard
The $9.1 million, the barred-donor list, and the office he kept for a decade.
Read the report →Transhumanism
The stated ambitions — the DNA, the brain, and the life extension.
Read the report →The Science Network
Brokers, institutions and scientists — and who did nothing wrong.
Read the report →Boris Nikolic
Editas and eGenesis — two Church co-founded companies where Nikolic held board seats.
Read the profile →