The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

by Walter Isaacson

One evening, right after a key experiment had produced positive results, Doudna was at home cooking spaghetti. The swirls in the boiling water reminded her of the salmon sperm she had studied under a microscope back in high school when learning about DNA, and she started to laugh. Her son, Andy, who was nine, asked her why. “We found this protein, an enzyme called Cas9,” she explained. “It can be programmed to find viruses and cut them up. It’s so incredible.” Andy kept asking how it worked. Over billions of years, she explained, bacteria evolved this totally weird and astonishing way to protect themselves against viruses. And it was adaptable; every time a new virus emerged, it learned how to recognize it and beat it back. He was fascinated. “It was a double joy,” she recalled, “a moment of fundamental discovery of something that is so cool, and being able to share it with my son and explaining it in a manner where he can get it.” Curiosity can be beautiful that way.3