CRISPR Cheat Sheet: The Most Important Gene Editing Stories of 2019

Human trials, bird flu, gene editing in space, and more

By now you’ve probably heard of CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that has made headlines for its unprecedented ability to edit DNA with relative ease. It’s the subject of a new documentary called “Human Nature” and was featured in the Netflix series “Unnatural Selection,” which was released this year. It also played a central role in the 2018 science fiction movie “Rampage” featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Hailed as one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the decade — and most likely, the century — CRISPR has the potential to change humans and our environment forever. It’s being used to fight cancer and genetic diseases, develop faster diagnostic tests, improve the animals we eat, and protect crops against disease and rising global temperatures. And all of it is happening at breakneck speed. It can be hard to keep up with all of these advances, so we’ve compiled a list of the most important gene-editing stories of 2019 to get you up to speed.

Astronauts used CRISPR in space for the first time

On May 4, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Among its cargo was an…