Prime Editing Comes of Age

Since the technique was first published in 2019, prime editing has grown with lightning speed, alongside hopes for what it can achieve.

Written byIda Emilie Steinmark, PhD

| 13 min read

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A computer-generated image of chromosomes on a black background. One chromosome has a ring of bright orange to indicate a mutation.

Since the invention of the PASSIGE system, prime editing can tackle mutations from single base substitutions to structural variants.

Image credit:© istock.com, cdascher

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CRISPR is perhaps the most popular tool in the genome editing toolkit. However, despite CRISPR’s obvious success, there are concerns about double-stranded breaks leading to unwanted, potentially dangerous edits.¹ At the same time, some applications might require larger changes than the fairly limited single-base substitution repertoire of base editors. Prime editing, which can achieve targeted edits with single-nucleotide precision and without cutting both strands of DNA, may offer a solution.

Since the inventors Andrew Anzalone and David Liu published their first report in 2019,² they have developed a next-generation system, started a company, and released the first encouraging preclinical data. Now, prime editing is finally heading towards the ultimate goal: therapy.

Prime editing uses specialized machinery consisting of a prime editing guide RNA (pegRNA) and a Cas9 enzyme fused to a reverse transcriptase. The version of Cas9 used in prime editing has one of its two nuclease domains deactivated, turning ...

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Meet the Author

Ida Emilie Steinmark, PhD
Emilie joined the Scientist as an assistant editor in 2023 after writing for publications such as the Guardian, Scientific American, and STAT. She has a degree in chemistry and a PhD in biophysics, but she enjoys writing about everything from ancient DNA to organoids. She lives in Brooklyn, where she can often be found searching for songbirds with her binoculars.
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