CRISPR-Cas9

Doudna and Charpentier publish that Cas9 can be aimed at any DNA sequence you name, using a guide RNA you write yourself.

In plain words

Doudna and Charpentier show that Cas9 can be aimed at any DNA sequence you name. The line of descent, which could always be struck from outside, becomes writable: the same tool cures, and a change to the germline is inherited by everyone after, none of whom were asked.

The mechanism

THE SEED BECOMES WRITABLE — across the whole record the line could be struck from outside but never typed on. A somatic edit stops with the patient; a germline edit is inheritance, carried by everyone downstream, none of whom were asked and none of whom can undo it

How it was checked

• EvidenceT7 PRIMARY DOCUMENT / MEASUREMENT; Status: COMMITTED
• Letter eraTHE RAIL YOU ARE ON 2001 to 2026
• Plate — Jennifer Doudna at the Innovative Genomics Institute, 2021 · photo by Christopher Michel · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jennifer_Doudna_by_Chris_Michel_03.jpg
• SourcesPRIMARY DOCUMENT — Science, 2012