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New Film Tells Origin Story of CRISPR Gene Editing

Ernesto del Aguila III, NHGRI
/
Public Domain

CRISPR gene editing. It's gone from an obscure biotech term to a household name in the past few years, in no small part due to a scientist who last year announced that he'd not only modified the DNA of human embryos but that two baby girls had been born carrying the edits he'd made.

The CRISPR system is not the only way to edit DNA, but it is faster, easier, and less expensive than alternatives. It also has the potential to be far more precise.

And that has pushed longstanding debates about human genetic selection and modification into fast forward. On one hand there's the promise of curing debilitating genetic diseases. On the other hand there's the fear of designer babies and widespread eugenics.

A new documentary by the Wonder Collaborative, called Human Nature, explores how we got here and where we might be headed with gene editing technology.

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Elsa Partan is a producer and newscaster with CAI. She first came to the station in 2002 as an intern and fell in love with radio. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. From 2006 to 2009, she covered the state of Wyoming for the NPR member station Wyoming Public Media in Laramie. She was a newspaper reporter at The Mashpee Enterprise from 2010 to 2013. She lives in Falmouth with her husband and two daughters.