CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Is Demonstrated

Setting the scene

Bacteria had used CRISPR sequences as immune archives against viruses for millennia; biochemists Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier, and teams including Feng Zhang and George Church raced to reprogram Cas9 protein to cut DNA at chosen sites.

What happened

Key CRISPR-Cas9 editing papers appeared in 2012, with Doudna and Charpentier's June Science paper and Zhang's January 2013 demonstration in human cells showing programmable genome scissors.

Why it still matters

Ethics debates on designer babies followed after He Jiankui's 2018 illicit embryo edits in China; Doudna and Charpentier's 2020 Nobel Prize crowned a tool now used in sickle-cell therapies, crop breeding, and disease-model mice worldwide.

Background

Ethics debates on designer babies followed.