Dr. Zamore received a Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University in 1986 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard in 1992. His Ph.D. research, in the laboratory of Dr. Michael R. Green, focused on the mechanism of pre-mRNA splicing, the process by which introns are removed and exons joined to transform the initial RNA transcript of a gene into a mature mRNA that encodes a functional protein. To begin to apply biochemical methods to the molecular mechanisms underlying animal development, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Ruth Lehmann at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research for post-doctoral research supported by fellowships by the Life Sciences Research Foundation and The Medical Foundation. His post-doctoral foray into Drosophila developmental biochemistry and genetics evolved into joint post-doctoral studies co-mentored by Drs. Lehmann, James R. Williamson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and David P. Bartel (Whitehead Institute), during which Dr. Zamore carried out the first detailed biochemical characterization of the developmental regulatory protein Pumilio and co-developed the first in vitro system for studying RNA interference (RNAi) in vitro.

In 1999, Dr. Zamore joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where his laboratory studies the biology and mechanisms of RNA silencing phenomena in fungi, plants, and animals. Dr. Zamore is a W. M. Keck Foundation Young Scholar in Medical Research and a former Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. He is also a co-founder of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of small RNA molecules as therapies for human disease.