Berkeley, California, United States, and Umeå, Sweden
Associated with
Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier
Showed that Cas9 can be programmed; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020
Feng Zhang and George Church
Applied it to human cells in 2013
Francisco Mojica
Spanish microbiologist who identified CRISPR sequences in microbes
Virginijus Šikšnys
Lithuanian biochemist who published related findings
Plate 095
2012
Berkeley, California, United States, and Umeå, Sweden
No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier and colleagues published the CRISPR-Cas9 programmable system in Science in June 2012. A first CRISPR-based therapy, for sickle cell disease, was approved in the UK and US in 2023.
About credit
There has been a long patent dispute between teams at Berkeley and the Broad Institute.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before CRISPR Gene Editing
Editing genes was slow, expensive and unreliable.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
The researchers showed that a guide RNA could direct the Cas9 enzyme to a specific DNA sequence and cut it. In 2018, He Jiankui announced the birth of gene-edited babies, which was condemned worldwide and he was imprisoned.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
CRISPR Gene Editing, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
A guide and scissors
RNA tells the Cas9 enzyme where to cut.
A guide and scissors
Repair
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Medicine
Treatments for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia.
Research
Labs worldwide use it.
CRISPR made editing genes faster and cheaper, with potential for treating genetic disease, improving crops and understanding biology, along with serious ethical questions.
V
Before and after
Life before and after CRISPR Gene Editing
Before
Years of work.
After
Weeks.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
VI
Its legacy
What came after
MHI 095
CRISPR Gene Editing
Beyond the collection
mRNA vaccines
Part of a broader biotechnology revolution.
Beyond the collection
Ethics
Debate over editing human embryos.
VII
Human stories
The people and the moments
From yoghurt to gene editing
Food-industry scientists studying how to protect yoghurt cultures from viruses helped show, in the 2000s, that CRISPR is a bacterial immune system.
Where accounts differ, this museum follows the documented record and says so.