A CRISPR Conversation

Social gridlock reigned at Villa & Vine, the State Street eatery just a tiara’s toss from the Granada when 2020 Nobel Prize winning biochemist Dr. Jennifer Doudna – who alongside Emmanuelle Charpentier developed CRISPR gene editing, a genome engineering technology – spoke on “The Future of Human Health” at a dinner before the fascinating lecture. Notably, a novel technique dubbed “cancer shredding” also uses CRISPR to destroy particular types of tumor cells. Co-author of A Crack in Creation and the subject of Walter Isaacson’s bestseller The Code Breaker, Doudna explored the profoundly powerful gene editing technology, its ethical implications and its breakthrough applications in agriculture, the environment, and medical science.

Among the rapt audience were Patty MacFarlane, Katine Zaninovich, Ed and Sue Birch, Tom and Heather Sturgess, Susan McCaw, Keith Lavine, and Ed McKinley.