A Crack in Creation Quotes

“Using gene editing, researchers at Calyxt easily addressed the problem in Ranger Russet potatoes:”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“mainstream and costs just a few hundred dollars per test, millions”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Decisions concerning the application of this knowledge must ultimately be made by society, and only an informed society can make such decisions wisely.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats—”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“The ability to activate or interfere with gene expression is nearly as powerful as the ability to edit the genes themselves.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“thing differentiating immune cells, heart cells, and brain cells is the precise pattern of gene expression that created them.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“specific genes. All you had to do was select the desired twenty-letter DNA sequence to edit and then convert that sequence into a matching twenty-letter code of RNA. Once inside the cell, the RNA would couple with its DNA match using base pairing, and Cas9 would slice apart the DNA.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“In a short time, we had constructed and validated a new technology that, based on the body of research conducted with ZFN and TALEN proteins, would be capable of editing the genome—any genome, not just one belonging to a bacterial virus. Out of this fifth bacterial weapons system, we had built the means to rewrite the code of life.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“bacteria unleash enzymes called restriction endonucleases to chop up any DNA that lack those markings, effectively purging any phage genes that managed to penetrate the cell wall.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Through this cycle of cellular invasion, hijacking, replication, and propagation, a single phage can wipe out an entire bacterial population in a matter of hours.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“With easy-to-use gene editing, it surely won’t be long before consumers can order off-the-shelf enhancements to any dog breed.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Since then, other researchers have created cynomolgus monkeys with changes in a gene that is mutated in over 50 percent of human cancers,”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“higher-fidelity versions of CRISPR that are less prone to off-target gene editing than the version nature evolved on its own.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“All scientists, regardless of discipline, need to be prepared to confront the broadest consequences of our work—but we need to communicate its more detailed aspects as well. I was reminded of this at a recent lunch I attended with some of Silicon Valley’s greatest technology gurus. One of them said, “Give me ten to twenty million dollars and a team of smart people, and we can solve virtually any engineering challenge.” This person obviously knew a thing or two about solving technological problems—a long string of successes attested to that—but ironically, such an approach would not have produced the CRISPR-based gene-editing technology, which was inspired by curiosity-driven research into natural phenomena. The technology we ended up creating did not take anywhere near ten to twenty million dollars to develop, but it did require a thorough understanding of the chemistry and biology of bacterial adaptive immunity, a topic that may seem wholly unrelated to gene editing. This is but one example of the importance of fundamental research—the pursuit of science for the sake of understanding our natural world—and its relevance to developing new technologies. Nature, after all, has had a lot more time than humans to conduct experiments! If there’s one overarching point I hope you will take away from this book, it’s that humans need to keep exploring the world around us through open-ended scientific research. The wonders of penicillin would never have been discovered had Alexander Fleming not been conducting simple experiments with Staphylococci bacteria. Recombinant DNA research—the foundation for modern molecular biology—became possible only with the isolation of DNA-cutting and DNA-copying enzymes from gut- and heat-loving bacteria. Rapid DNA sequencing required experiments on the remarkable properties of bacteria from hot springs. And my colleagues and I would never have created a powerful gene-editing tool if we hadn’t tackled the much more fundamental question of how bacteria fight off viral infections.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Even gene variants implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s may have benefits, such as improved cognitive function and better episodic and working memory in young adults.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Mice were often the first test subjects for these techniques, and scientists were amazed at how effective the new methods were in the tiny creatures. By injecting new DNA into fertilized mouse eggs and then implanting those eggs into female mice, researchers found they could permanently splice the foreign DNA into the next generation and cause observable changes in the developing animals. These advances meant that any gene that scientists could isolate and clone in the lab could be tested and investigated; by adding the gene to cells, scientists could observe its effects and better understand the gene’s function”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Retroviruses, a large class of viruses that includes the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), do the same thing in humans, splicing their genetic material into the genome of infected cells. This pernicious property makes retroviruses especially challenging to eradicate, so much so that they have left an outsize mark on our species. A full 8 percent of the human genome—over 250 million letters of DNA—is a remnant of ancient retroviruses that infected ancestors of our species millennia ago.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Inspired in part by the uncanny ability of viruses to splice new genetic information into the DNA of bacterial cells, the pioneers of this early gene therapy realized they could use viruses to deliver therapeutic genes to humans. The first reported attempts came in the late 1960s from Stanfield Rogers, an American physician who had been studying a wart-causing virus in rabbits, Shope papillomavirus. Rogers was particularly interested in one aspect of the Shope virus: It caused rabbits to overproduce arginase, an enzyme their bodies used to neutralize arginine, a harmful amino acid. The sick rabbits had much more arginase in their systems, and much less arginine, than healthy rabbits. What’s more, Rogers found that researchers who had worked with the virus also had lower-than-normal levels of arginine in their blood. Apparently these scientists had contracted the infections from the rabbits, and these infections had led to lasting changes in the researchers’ bodies as well. Rogers suspected that the Shope virus was ferrying a gene for heightened arginase production into cells. As he marveled at the virus’s ability to transfer its genetic information so effectively, he began to wonder if an engineered version could deliver other, useful genes. Many years later, Rogers would recall: “It was clear that we had uncovered a therapeutic agent in search of a disease!” Rogers didn’t have to wait long for a disease”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Affecting just a few dozen people worldwide, WHIM is a painful, potentially deadly immunodeficiency disease that makes life difficult for those unfortunate enough to suffer from it. It is caused by a tiny mutation—a single incorrect letter among some six billion total letters of one’s DNA, amounting to a change of just a dozen or so atoms. This minute transformation leaves WHIM victims profoundly susceptible to infection by human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes uncontrollable warts that cover the patient’s skin and can eventually progress to cancer. It’s a testament to the rareness of the disease that the patient in whom WHIM syndrome had first been diagnosed back in the 1960s was the same person whom the NIH researchers met all those years later. In the scientific literature, she’s known simply as WHIM-09, but I’ll call her Kim. Kim had been afflicted with WHIM since birth, and over the course of her life, she had been hospitalized multiple times with serious infections stemming from the disease. In 2013, Kim—then fifty-eight—presented herself and her two daughters, both in their early twenties, to the staff at NIH. The younger women had classic signs of the disease, but the scientists were surprised to discover that Kim herself seemed fine. In fact, she claimed to have been symptom-free for over twenty years. Shockingly, and without any medical intervention, Kim had been cured.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Animal research is indispensable to the study of human disease, whether it’s used to confirm the genetic causes of certain disorders, to evaluate potential drugs, or to test the efficacy of medical interventions like surgery or cell therapy.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Canadian team created the Enviropig, an environmentally friendly transgenic pig containing an E. coli gene that allowed the animals to better digest a phosphorus-containing compound called phytate. Normal pig manure retains high phosphorus levels that leach into streams and rivers, causing algal blooms, the death of aquatic animals, and the production of greenhouse gases; Enviropig manure contained 75 percent less phosphorus, which could have been an enormous benefit to the planet and to the people who lived and worked near pig farms. Despite this, though, and despite reassuring safety data, consumers decried the Enviropig, causing the project’s financial backers to pull the plug.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“In 2015, 92 percent of all corn, 94 percent of all cotton, and 94 percent of all soybeans grown in the United States were genetically engineered in this way. The altered crops offer considerable environmental and economic advantages. By planting crops that have enhanced abilities to protect themselves against pests, farmers can attain higher yields while reducing their reliance on harsh chemical pesticides and herbicides.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“In 2015 alone, Addgene shipped some sixty thousand CRISPR-related plasmids to researchers in over eighty different countries.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“plasmid. By easing the burden on plasmid producers and satisfying requests from plasmid consumers, Addgene has helped to ensure that any academic or nonprofit lab in the world can obtain research materials, including those needed to employ the CRISPR technology, for its particular experimental needs.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“Addgene is like Netflix, only for plasmids.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“We propose an alternative methodology based on RNA-programmed Cas9 that could offer considerable potential for gene-targeting and genome-editing applications.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“only a remote possibility in the United States, since existing reproductive procedures such as IVF and PGD, which routinely cost tens of thousands of dollars, are seldom covered by health insurance. But in places like France, Israel, and Sweden, countries whose national health plans cover assisted reproduction, it’s possible that simple economics will incentivize governments to make gene editing available to patients who need it. After all, providing lifelong treatment to a single person with a genetic disease could be much more expensive than prophylactic intervention in the embryo using gene editing.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“The fact is that editing a particular gene will always carry the risk of unforeseen effects.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“I hope these reflections will help advance the conversation about germline editing—and help us to decide whether, and how, we will intervene in the evolutionary journey of our species.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering

“CRISPR had morphed from a revolutionary but relatively esoteric technology into a household word.”
― Jennifer A. Doudna, A Crack In Creation: A Nobel Prize Winner's Insight into the Future of Genetic Engineering