Arguably one of the most significant scientific development's in the last 10 years has been the development of an unique gene editing technology that can be applied to whole cells called CRISPR/Cas9. This technology has many applications in biomedical research, including the potential to treat human genetic disease. However, the technology also has the potential to modify the human genome and change human society.

 One of the best free videos explaining how the technology works and giving the background to the discovery is given in the animation below produced at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT where Professor Feng Zhang, a leader in the development of this technology works.

Further information can be found on Professor Zhang’s website.