These 2021 Biotech Breakthroughs Will Shape the Future of Health and Medicine

With 2021 behind us, we're going down memory lane to highlight biotech innovations that shaped the year--with impact that will likely reverberate for many years to come. Covid-19 dominated the news, but science didn't stand still. CRISPR spun off variations with breathtaking speed, expanding into a hefty toolbox packed with powerhouse gene editors far more efficient, reliable, and safer than their predecessors. CRISPRoff, for example, hijacks epigenetic processes to reversibly turn genes on and off--all without actually snipping or damaging the gene itself. Prime editing, the nip-tuck of DNA editing that only snips--rather than fully cutting--DNA received an upgrade to precisely edit up to 10,000 DNA letters in a variety of cells.