a crack in creation the new power to control evolution

Gene editing holds the promise of life-changing treatments and cures and may also be able to prevent certain diseases in future humans. As long as scientists know the genetic code for a particular trait, they can use CRISPR to insert, edit or delete a gene in virtually any living plant or animal’s genome. Through this method, by rationally and deliberately correcting misspellings in the genome, the effects of genetic disease can effectively be reversed. Thanks to CRISPR, an organism’s entire DNA is now almost as easy to edit as a piece of text.ĬRISPR enables scientists to find and fix single incorrect DNA strands out of the 3.2 billion letters that make up the human genome. Doudna describes this as “a virus-seeking missile that can strike quickly and with incredible precision.” It’s an amazing defense mechanism that evolved over eons.ĭoudna runs a lab at Berkeley, where her team studied CRISPR and how to use it as a highly effective genetic engineering tool. The bacteria’s RNA works with proteins to cut up the DNA of the virus. In one of these mechanisms, the bacteria steal snippets of an attacking phage’s DNA during the infection to mount a future immune response, designed to target and destroy the phage. Bacteria have developed defense mechanisms to fight off these viruses. Doudna explained that on Earth there are “10 million trillion trillion” phages - viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Next, the authors reviewed the latest gene-editing technology, known as “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” (CRISPR). They then detailed the history of science in this area, which led to scientific gene manipulation or, more simply, gene editing. The authors describe how changes happen in nature through random mutation and natural selection. With no background in biochemistry, I was at times confused by their story but still found it fascinating. In the first half of the book, the authors simplify the science behind their work, making it understandable to the average reader. They wrote the book together, but it focuses on Doudna’s work developing gene-editing technology. Sternberg runs a research laboratory at Columbia University, where he is also a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics.

Doudna is a professor of biomedical science at University of California, Berkeley and in 2020 won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, along with Emmanuelle Charpentier, for their work in genome editing. In “A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution,” biochemists Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg describe how stunning advancements in their field can bring a wide array of benefits, as well as the risks they pose to our society and planet.

A crack in creation the new power to control evolution