The Golden Age of Genetic Engineering
One of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of 2016, and arguably for the next decade, is a powerful new gene-editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas9. This innovation in genetic modification has enabled scientists to customize organisms with an unprecedented precision in a matter of days rather than months or years.
Scientists have figured out how to exploit a quirk in the immune system of bacteria to edit genes in other organisms. How? On the surface, CRISPR harnesses the immune system of bacteria, making it easy, cheap and fast to move genes around and customize their effects. This is a powerful new tool to modify what characteristics are expressed in plants, animals and even humans.…