What genome editing tech has done for the world, so far

Fourteen years after co-inventing CRISPR, Jennifer Doudna checks in on what it’s become. The Nobel Prize-winning biochemist walks through the technology’s biggest moments — the 2012 discovery, the 2018 CRISPR babies announcement, and today’s $2 million but functionally curative therapy for sickle cell disease — alongside newer applications like reducing methane emissions from cattle farming.

Doudna also admits there is unfinished work ahead: the cost still keeping that cure out of reach for most patients, and the responsibility of guiding a technology she describes as a genie that can’t go back in the bottle.

This video is featured on Big Think.