CRISPR Gene Editing (2012)

Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier's adaptation of the CRISPR-Cas9 bacterial immune system into a programmable gene-editing tool in 2012 (for which they won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) has the potential to be the most consequential biological discovery since DNA's structure. CRISPR enables precise editing of any genome in any living cell, making it the foundational tool of the genomic medicine era: treating genetic diseases, developing disease-resistant crops, and potentially reversing hereditary conditions.