In October, two scientists shared the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for inventing the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology that might help us end genetic diseases, like Huntington’s – by taking cells out of a patient, fixing the damaged gene, and then putting the cell back in again.
The prize was jointly awarded to Jennifer Doudna, Professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, professor at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research at Hannover Medical School, Germany.
This is an edited transcript of an interview with Professor Doudna.
With CRISPR/Cas9, are we now nearing the end of genetic diseases?
I think maybe the beginning of the end of genetic diseases. I started the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI), a joint UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco partnership, to help ensure that the CRISPR/Cas9 technology delivers on its promise to alleviate human disease and suffering, getting treatments into human trials as quickly as possible.
Read full, original story: Q&A: Towards the end of genetic disease?
