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A crack in creation : gene editing and the unthinkable power to control evolution / Jennifer A. Doudna, Samuel H. Sternberg.

by Doudna, Jennifer A.

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

CRISPR (Genetics)

Genetic engineering.

Genetics -- Research.

Genetic engineering -- Moral and ethical aspects.

9780544716940 (hc.)

Alternate title:

Gene editing and the unthinkable power to control evolution

xx, 281 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references, Internet addresses and index.

The quest for a cure -- A new defense -- Cracking the code -- Command and control -- The CRISPR menagerie -- To heal the sick -- The reckoning -- What lies ahead -- Epilogue : the beginning.

"The biggest scientific discovery of our era: a cheap, easy way of rewriting genetic code, with nearly limitless promise and peril. Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. In the spring of 2015 biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the new gene-editing tool CRISPR - a revolutionary new technology that she helped create - to make heritable changes in human embryos. The cheapest, simplest, most effective way of manipulating DNA ever known, CRISPR may well give us the cure to HIV, genetic diseases, and some cancers, and will help address the world's hunger crisis. Yet even the tiniest changes to DNA could have myriad, unforeseeable consequences - to say nothing of the ethical and societal repercussions of intentionally mutating embryos to create "better" humans. With fellow researcher Samuel Sternberg, Doudna shares the story of her discovery, and argues that enormous responsibility comes with the ability to rewrite the code of life. With CRISPR, she shows, we have effectively taken control of evolution. What will we do with this unfathomable power? Jennifer Doudna is a professor in the Chemistry and the Molecular and Cell Biology Departments at the University of California, Berkeley. She is internationally recognized as a leading expert on RNA-protein biochemistry, CRISPR biology, and genome engineering. Samuel Sternberg is is a biochemist and author of numerous scientific publications on CRISPR technology"--Provided by publisher.

"CRISPR is a family of DNA sequences in bacteria that contains snippets of DNA from viruses that have attacked the bacterium. These snippets are used by the bacterium to detect and destroy DNA from further attacks by similar viruses. These sequences play a key role in a bacterial defence system and form the basis of a genome editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas9 that allows permanent modification of genes within organisms. CRISPR is an abbreviation of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats."--From wikipedia.org website.

Sternberg, Samuel H.

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