Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing

Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing

by Kevin Davies
Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing

Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing

by Kevin Davies

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Overview

One of the world's leading experts on genetics unravels one of the most important breakthroughs in modern science and medicine.

If our genes are, to a great extent, our destiny, then what would happen if mankind could engineer and alter the very essence of our DNA coding? Millions might be spared the devastating effects of hereditary disease or the challenges of disability, whether it was the pain of sickle-cell anemia to the ravages of Huntington’s disease.

But this power to “play God” also raises major ethical questions and poses threats for potential misuse. For decades, these questions have lived exclusively in the realm of science fiction, but as Kevin Davies powerfully reveals in his new book, this is all about to change.

Engrossing and page-turning, Editing Humanity takes readers inside the fascinating world of a new gene editing technology called CRISPR, a high-powered genetic toolkit that enables scientists to not only engineer but to edit the DNA of any organism down to the individual building blocks of the genetic code.

Davies introduces readers to arguably the most profound scientific breakthrough of our time. He tracks the scientists on the front lines of its research to the patients whose powerful stories bring the narrative movingly to human scale.

Though the birth of the “CRISPR babies” in China made international news, there is much more to the story of CRISPR than headlines seemingly ripped from science fiction. In Editing Humanity, Davies sheds light on the implications that this new technology can have on our everyday lives and in the lives of generations to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781643137636
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publication date: 05/11/2021
Pages: 464
Sales rank: 514,357
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Kevin Davies is the executive editor of The CRISPR Journal and the founding editor of Nature Genetics. He holds an MA in biochemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in molecular genetics from the University of London. He is the author of Cracking the Genome, The $1,000 Genome, and co-authored a new edition of DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution with Nobel Laureate James D. Watson and Andrew Berry. In 2017, Kevin was selected for a Guggenheim Fellowship in science writing.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part I 1

1 The CRISPR Craze 3

2 A Cut Above 17

3 We Can Be Heroes 30

4 "Thelma and Louise" 46

5 DNA Surgery 63

6 Field of Dreams 76

7 Prize Fight 90

Part II 103

8 Genome Editing B.C. 105

9 Deliverance or Disaster 123

10 The Rise and Fall of Gene Therapy 134

11 Overnight Success 147

12 Fix You 166

13 Patent Pending 179

Part III 191

14 #CRISPRbabies 193

15 The Boy from Xinhua 206

16 Breaking the Glass 219

17 A Maculate Conception 231

18 Crossing the Germline 245

19 Going Rogue 260

Part IV 277

20 To Extinction and Beyond 279

21 Farm Aid 301

22 CRISPR Prime 321

23 Volitional Evolution 337

24 Bases Loaded 361

Epilogue 369

Acknowledgments 373

Further Reading 375

Online Resources 379

Endnotes 381

Index 427

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