Jennifer Doudna on the Brave New World Being Ushered In by Gene Editing

In 2012, the biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier developed a method for using RNA-guided proteins to edit specific sections of DNA. Their innovation--for which the two won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 2020--is known as the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system. CRISPR has since been used to alter plants (to, for instance, produce greater yields), insects (preventing them from carrying certain diseases), and people (to treat sickle-cell disease). The technology's promise can sound as if derived from science fiction: it might help us adapt to a radically different climate, or grow organs for those in need, or reprogram a cancer patient's own cells to target tumors. But there are also worries about its possible side effects, both biological and social.