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Molecule by molecule, the transformational genome-editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9 is getting so many upgrades so quickly it’s like scientists are changing a flip phone into a Galaxy S7 overnight. On Wednesday, scientists unveiled two more improvements that could speed the development of drugs and increase the chance of any CRISPR-based gene therapies succeeding.
“It’s remarkable science and unquestionably spectacular work,” said Eric Kmiec, director of the gene-editing program at Delaware’s Christiana Care Health System, who was not involved in the new study. “But the field is moving so quickly, I’m concerned that we might be doing things just because they’re really cool.”
The seemingly constant advances also may turn the bitter patent battle over CRISPR into a historical footnote. “If something else becomes the fundamental technology,” said Jacob Sherkow of New York Law School, then the original CRISPR patents — awarded to the Broad Institute and challenged by the University of California — “might be worth less than people envisioned.”
Image via Flickr/Sarah Ackerman