The Genetic Engineering Revolution

CRISPR-Cas9, a gene-editing technology adapted from a naturally occurring bacterial immune system that uses short RNA sequences to recognize and cut invading viral DNA, was developed into a general-purpose genome-editing tool in 2012 by the biochemists Jennifer Doudna, at the University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, then at Umea University in Sweden. Their method allows researchers to direct the Cas9 enzyme to cut DNA at a precisely chosen location specified by a short guide RNA sequence, after which the cell's own repair mechanisms can be harnessed to disable, correct, or insert genetic material with a precision, speed, and low cost that far surpassed earlier gene-editing techniques. Doudna and Charpentier were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for the discovery. CRISPR technology has since been applied to basic research, agriculture, and an expanding number of clinical gene therapies, including approved treatments for certain inherited blood disorders, while also opening intense ethical debate over the editing of human embryos.