She describes the many setbacks she experienced along the way before she successfully fused CRISPR with the Cas9 enzyme. This fascination led her to the University of California, where she first learned about CRISPR. She explains that she has always been fascinated by natural changes in the genome-changes that randomly cure patients of genetic diseases. In the first part of the book, “The Tool,” Doudna talks about the years between 20, from when she first encountered genome editing to her initial experiments on CRISPR. Although A Crack in Creation contains a lot of scientific language and detailed technical discussions, it is still accessible to the average reader simply looking for more information on the subject. Scientists believe they can use CRISPR/Cas9 to alter human DNA structures. Cas9 can “cut” through strands of DNA and alter it. Within these DNA structures is a gene known as Cas9. Sternberg, a biochemist and genome expert, runs a research laboratory at Columbia University.Ī Crack in Creation relays the brief history of a genome-editing tool known as CRISPR, or “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” CRISPR is a DNA structure found in bacteria that scientists now understand plays a crucial role in immune defense.

Doudna, a biochemist known for her pioneering work on genome editing, has won numerous awards for her work. The book has been nominated for numerous awards and is popular within the scientific community. Sternberg discuss the implications of a recent discovery allowing us to completely rewrite genetic codes. In A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution (2017), a genetics-focused science book, Jennifer A.

A crack in the creation