CRISPR

Clustered DNA repeats in bacteria and archaea that store records of past viral infections, part of an adaptive immune system.

Cas9: A CRISPR-associated nuclease that cuts DNA at sites specified by a guide RNA. The molecular scissor whose targeting makes CRISPR both an immune defense and an editing tool.
Yogurt starter cultures: Industrial bacterial cultures whose phage susceptibility patterns first revealed CRISPR's immune role. Dairy industry data on phage resistance provided the first evidence CRISPR stored viral DNA.
Emmanuelle Charpentier: Microbiologist who co-demonstrated Cas9 could be programmed with guide RNA to cut any DNA. Her 2012 work with Doudna turned a bacterial immune system into a genome editor.
Casgevy: The first approved CRISPR therapy, licensed in 2023 for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. The proof that CRISPR editing has reached patients, not just laboratories.
Restriction enzymes: Bacterial cutters that recognize fixed DNA sequences rather than programmable targets. The older bacterial defense and editing tool that CRISPR displaced by being programmable.
Guide RNA: An RNA sequence that directs Cas proteins to a matching DNA target by base pairing. The programmable address label that makes the cut site adjustable at will.
Francisco Mojica: Microbiologist who showed the repeats matched viral DNA and proposed an immune function in 2005. His spacer-virus match turned unexplained repeats into a documented memory system.
Jennifer Doudna: Biochemist who solved Cas9's structure and co-developed its use as a programmable editing tool. Co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the Cas9 editing system.
Agricultural gene editing: Using CRISPR to alter crop traits such as disease resistance, shelf life, and yield. Plants were among the first edited organisms, with regulation still diverging by country.
Zinc finger nuclease: An engineered nuclease targeting DNA via protein-DNA recognition domains. The pre-CRISPR method requiring custom protein engineering for every new target.

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