CRISPR genome editing will transform biotechnology and our lives in the next decade making possible (and cheap*) all kinds of new cures, new crops, new livestock, new industrial processes, and new ways to manage the environmental commons. Just two years ago, Science hailed CRISPR as the scientific breakthrough of 2015 noting, “It’s only slightly hyperbolic to say that if scientists can dream of a genetic manipulation, CRISPR can now make it happen.” Researchers have tweaked CRISPR so that it can find and cut and, if desired, replace essentially any DNA sequence in an organism’s set of genes, including those in human beings.
