CRISPR, short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, is a family of DNA sequences found in bacteria and archaea. The repeats were first noticed in the genome of Escherichia coli by the Japanese researcher Yoshizumi Ishino. In the 2000s scientists realized that they form part of an adaptive immune system, storing snippets of viral DNA, and that Cas proteins, guided by RNA, cut matching viral DNA. In 2012 Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna showed that the system could be programmed as a tool for editing genes, and it was soon adapted for human cells. They received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. Applications include medicine, with a first approved therapy for sickle cell disease, and agriculture, and the technique has raised ethical debates, especially after the birth of gene-edited babies in China in 2018.
Before and after
More in Science & technology
- 1949Discovery of berkelium
- 1955Discovery of mendelevium
- 14 February 1961Discovery of lawrencium
- 8 December 1994Discovery of roentgenium
- 1996Discovery of copernicium
- 2006Discovery of nihonium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.