Doudna reviews CRISPR

CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna sounds off on the promise and limitations of genome editing in a review for Nature — comparing and contrasting the different methodologies for this technology. 

For instance, she indicates how AAVs are the most efficient, clinically established vectors for gene therapy, but cites their high cost and manufacturing challenges, along with their limited cargo size and likelihood to provoke an immune response. That’s one broad assessment, but Doudna addresses the intricacies of the sector — including the ethics around human germline editing. She concludes, however, that therapeutic genome editing will come to fruition over the next decade. 

“The potential impact on patients is too important to wait,” she writes.