The conference had two goals: guarding against the hazards that could come from creating new forms of genes and guarding against the threat that politicians would ban genetic engineering altogether. On both fronts, the Asilomar process was successful. They were able to chart “a prudent path forward,” an approach that Baltimore and Doudna would later replicate in the debates over CRISPR gene editing. The restrictions agreed to at Asilomar were accepted by universities and funding agencies worldwide.
