The CRISPR Revolution and a New Era of Genome Editing

Kevin Davies, founding editor of Nature Genetics, dedicated his book to the history of the emergence and development of the genome editing technology known as CRISPR. In 2012, biochemist Jennifer Doudna and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier developed this method, for which they were later awarded the Nobel Prize. Other scientists have improved the procedure, which now allows for rapid and simple modification of DNA sequences. These scientific discoveries have led to legal battles over patents that continue to this day.
CRISPR can create disease- and pest-resistant varieties of crops and breeds of livestock. People have the prospect of getting rid of incurable ailments. Scientists are already capable of altering many traits of a human at the embryo stage — for example, their height or intellectual abilities. However, all this is associated with moral and ethical issues, which are assessed and resolved differently in various countries.