CRISPR Pioneer Jennifer Doudna on the Future of Disease Detection

The co-inventor of the groundbreaking gene editing technology talks to OneZero about a world where illness could be diagnosed in minutes

Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist responsible for foundational work in CRISPR-based genome editing. Credit: UC Berkeley

In 2012, scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier published a seminal study describing a tool called CRISPR that could be used to make cuts in DNA. Since then, CRISPR research has taken off, and its ability to edit genes has made it a tantalizing approach to treating disease at its root cause. But CRISPR’s other major trait — searching for a particular genetic sequence — could also make it a breakthrough for detecting disease.

Currently, diagnosing infectious diseases relies on outdated testing methods that can take days to render a result. For cancer patients, new tests that decode the genetic makeup of a tumor can help guide treatment, but these diagnostics are expensive and not always covered by insurance. Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks CRISPR could be a quicker and cheaper way to diagnose a variety of different medical conditions and thus help patients get treated faster. She’s co-founded a biotech startup in San Francisco called Mammoth Biosciences, which is developing portable, paper-based tests that could be used in…