It’s been a monumental year for Crispr, the molecular tool scientists use to edit genetic material.
Although Crispr-related medical breakthroughs are currently attracting fervent attention, [co-creator Jennifer] Doudna suspects that the technology will break through on a mass scale outside of the health care world. “I think many of us will experience Crispr in the agricultural world before we experience it clinically,” she says. “By the food we eat, and the environmental impact.”
The IGI has expanded its mission to include agricultural research, and Doudna is especially excited about an ongoing project her team is working on in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Davis to cut down the amount of methane cattle produce. In other words: It’s a project to make cow burps and farts pollute the air less. Not necessarily the most glamorous research, but it could prove revolutionary. “Being able to reduce or eliminate methane production in cattle would have an enormous impact on greenhouse gas production,” Doudna says. Ideally, researchers might develop a simple delivery system, like a probiotic drink, that could alter the cows’ methane production.
