Jonathan Weissman, MIT
Exclusive: Big-name academics and investors are quietly preparing a slate of new (epi)genome editing companies
A few weeks after Jennifer Doudna introduced CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to the world, one of her old students decided to take the central part of the biology-altering invention and kill it.
CRISPR/Cas9, as the name implies, is a two-part system: a string of letters called a guide RNA, that says where to cut the DNA. And an enzyme, Cas9, that does the cutting. Often compared to molecular scissors, it was the first system that allowed researchers to cut DNA with ease and precision, promising potential cures for genetic diseases such as sickle cell and cystic fibrosis.
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