Diagram of the CRISPR prokaryotic viral defense mechanismWIKIMEDIA, JAMES ATMOS
Clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) became a household word this year as a growing number of media outlets covered applications of CRISPR/Cas gene-editing—in particular, the manipulation of the human germline. While use of the CRISPR/Cas system is far from new (The Scientist first reported on it in 2009, and chose the gene-editing technique as one of the 2013’s biggest advances), there’s no question that this was the year it attained buzzworthy status.
After researchers at China’s Sun Yat-sen University in April reported using the CRISPR/Cas9 system to edit a gene in human tripronuclear zygotes, US National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said his agency would “not fund any use of gene-editing technologies in human embryos.” At an international symposium held earlier this ...
