The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human RaceA Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington Post The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies. When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his codiscovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is an “enthralling detective story” (Oprah Daily) that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species. |
Contents
1 | |
3 | |
11 | |
17 | |
The Education of a Biochemist | 29 |
The Human Genome | 37 |
RNA | 43 |
Twists and Folds | 51 |
Therapies | 245 |
Biohacking | 253 |
DARPA and AntiCRISPR | 259 |
Public Scientist | 265 |
Rules of the Road | 267 |
Doudna Steps In | 283 |
CRISPR Babies | 297 |
He Jiankui | 299 |
Berkeley | 63 |
CRISPR | 69 |
Clustered Repeats | 71 |
The Free Speech Movement Café | 79 |
Jumping In | 81 |
The Yogurt Makers | 89 |
Genentech | 97 |
The Lab | 103 |
Caribou | 113 |
Emmanuelle Charpentier | 119 |
CRISPRCas9 | 129 |
Science 2012 | 137 |
Dueling Presentations | 143 |
Gene Editing | 151 |
A Human Tool | 153 |
The Race | 157 |
Feng Zhang | 161 |
George Church | 169 |
Zhang Tackles CRISPR | 175 |
Doudna Joins the Race | 187 |
Photo Finish | 191 |
Doudnas Final Sprint | 197 |
Forming Companies | 203 |
Mon Amie | 215 |
The Heroes of CRISPR | 223 |
Patents | 231 |
CRISPR in Action | 243 |
The Hong Kong Summit | 315 |
Acceptance | 325 |
The Moral Questions | 333 |
Red Lines | 335 |
Thought Experiments | 341 |
Who Should Decide? CHAPTER 43 Doudnas Ethical Journey 355 | 355 |
Dispatches from the Front | 371 |
Quebec | 373 |
I Learn to Edit | 379 |
Watson Revisited | 385 |
Doudna Pays a Visit | 395 |
Coronavirus | 399 |
Call to Arms | 401 |
Testing | 407 |
The Berkeley Lab | 413 |
Mammoth and Sherlock | 421 |
Coronavirus Tests | 427 |
Vaccines | 435 |
CRISPR Cures | 449 |
Cold Spring Harbor Virtual | 459 |
The Nobel Prize | 469 |
EPILOGUE | 477 |
Acknowledgments | 483 |
Notes | 487 |
517 | |
Image Credits | 535 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able allowed application asked Author’s interviews babies bacteria became become began Berkeley biology Broad called Cas9 cause cells Chapter Charpentier Church collaboration competition conference coronavirus create CRISPR CRISPR-Cas9 decided described detect developed discovered discovery discussion disease embryos engineering enhancements enzyme especially experiments Feng Zhang figure gene editing genetic Genome George germline Harvard human human cells idea important Institute interested involved issue Jennifer Doudna Jiankui Jinek Journal Lander later living look meeting molecule move Nature organisms patent person produce protein published question race realized recalls says scientific scientists sequences showed structure student talk things thought told tool trying turn University vaccine virus viruses wanted Watson wrote Zhang