The Code Breaker

I am excited for you all to read "The Code Breaker" on March 9. It's unlike any project I've worked on and I hope you enjoy it...I'm getting asked more and more about how I got the idea to research and write about Jennifer Doudna and gene editing, so here is some backstory on "The Code Breaker."

I remember coming back from a research trip a couple of years ago and sitting on my balcony in New Orleans thinking about gene editing. The French Quarter was hopping that weekend. There was a naked bicycle race that was intended (oddly enough) to promote traffic safety. There was one of many parades and second lines to celebrate the life of Mac Rebennack, the funk musician known as Dr. John. There was also the annual gay pride parade and related block parties. And coexisting quite happily was the French Market Creole Tomato Festival, featuring truck farmers and cooks showing off the many varieties of succulent non-genetically-modified local tomatoes.

From my balcony, I saw people short and tall, gay and straight and trans, fat and skinny, light and dark and café au lait. I saw a cluster wearing Gallaudet University t-shirts excitedly using sign language. The supposed promise of CRISPR is that we may someday be able to pick which of these traits we want in our children and in all of our descendants. We could choose for them to be tall and muscular and blond and blue-eyed and not deaf and not… well, pick your preferences.

As I surveyed the scene with all of its natural variety, I pondered how this promise of CRISPR might also be its peril. It took nature millions of years to weave together three billion bases of DNA in a complex and occasionally imperfect way to permit all of the wondrous diversity within our species. Are we right to think we can now come along and edit that genome to eliminate what we see as imperfections? Will we lose our diversity? Our humility and empathy? Will we become less flavorful, like our tomatoes?

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the mood now is different, as are my thoughts on CRISPR. Like our species, my thinking evolves and adapts with changing situations. I now see the promise of CRISPR more clearly than the peril. If we are wise in how we use it, biotechnology can make us more able to fend off viruses, overcome genetic defects, and enhance our bodies and minds. All creatures large and small use whatever tricks they can to survive, and so should we. It’s natural. Bacteria came up with a pretty clever virus-fighting technique. But it took them trillions of life-cycles to do so. We can’t wait that long. We will have to combine our curiosity with our inventiveness to speed up the process.

Not everything needs to be decided right away. We can begin by asking what type of world would we want to leave for our children. Then we can feel our way together, step by step, preferably hand-in-hand.