![]() He explores CRISPR’s therapeutic potential, particularly its use in developing diagnostic tools and treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. In “The Code Breaker,” Isaacson examines the impact of Doudna’s work. Doudna and Charpentier’s seminal 2012 paper explaining how CRISPR could be harnessed for gene editing in humans revolutionized the field of biotechnology. ![]() Collaborating with Emmanuelle Charpentier (with whom Doudna shared the Nobel Prize), Doudna elucidated the functions of key CRISPR components and realized that CRISPR could also be used to edit human DNA. After learning about CRISPR, which had been discovered in the 1990s, Doudna sought to determine how bacteria used the CRISPR system to destroy viral DNA sequences. Inspired to become a scientist after reading James Watson’s “The Double Helix,” Doudna began her scientific career by researching RNA, which acts as an intermediary between DNA and proteins. The book’s narrative structure, accessible scientific explanations, compelling themes and thought-provoking questions about the future of humanity make it a worthwhile and informative read. Walter Isaacson’s book “The Code Breaker” chronicles Doudna’s immense contributions to the development of CRISPR as a gene-editing tool as well as the applications of this technology. This breakthrough in biological research is credited to Jennifer Doudna, who was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work. ![]() The discovery that CRISPR, a bacterial defense mechanism against viruses, could be used to edit human genes is one of the most significant scientific advancements of the last half-century.
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