CRISPR–Cas9: A History of Its Discovery and Ethical Considerations of Its Use in Genome Editing

    August 2022 in “ Biochemistry (Moscow) ”
    Irina Gostimskaya
    TLDR CRISPR-Cas9 allows precise DNA editing but raises ethical concerns about modifying human embryos.
    The CRISPR-Cas9 technology, which earned Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020, revolutionized genome editing by allowing precise DNA manipulation. Initially discovered as a defense mechanism in prokaryotes against viruses, CRISPR-Cas9 has been applied in various fields, including agriculture and medicine, with the potential to treat genetic diseases. However, its use in modifying human embryo cells has sparked ethical debates and calls for a moratorium on inheritable genomic changes due to concerns about the implications of such interventions.
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