The Present And Future Of Gene Editing - EP 54 Jennifer Doudna

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Jan 28, 2026

Jennifer Doudna, Nobel-winning biochemist who helped invent CRISPR, joins to talk about where gene editing stands and where it’s headed. They cover recent clinical wins like sickle cell treatments and rapid rare-disease interventions. Conversation also digs into delivery challenges, IGI’s role in fast responses, agricultural uses, and how AI and startups are shaping the field.

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INSIGHT

Functional Cure Through Fetal Hemoglobin

Casgevy treats sickle cell by reactivating fetal hemoglobin instead of fixing the sickle mutation.
That one-time CRISPR treatment acts as a functional cure by overriding the disease phenotype.

INSIGHT

Cost And Delivery Are The Main Bottlenecks

Current CRISPR therapies work but are costly due to manufacturing and delivery bottlenecks.
Reducing molecule production costs and improving delivery are the two biggest priorities now.

ANECDOTE

Baby KJ’s Rapid, Life-Saving Treatment

Baby KJ had a severe metabolic mutation that prevented protein digestion and was treated rapidly with a base editor delivered to the liver.
The coordinated, fast effort across institutions produced a practical, near-term cure for a child in urgent need.

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Let’s get right to the point: Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna is on the pod this week.

Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work developing “a method for high-precision genome editing.” They, and others, helped usher in the CRISPR revolution with people getting very, very excited about the prospects of editing genes in humans, animals, and plants with more precision and ease.

There have been some massive recent CRISPR wins. Casgevy, which treats sickle cell disease, emerged as the first FDA-approved CRISPR therapy. And, last year, an infant in Pennsylvania had a rare disease treated with record-breaking speed via CRISPR technology.

That said, CRISPR has, in many ways, not lived up to the hope and hype just yet. CRISPR therapies remain expensive and tough to distribute throughout the body.

Doudna is convinced that several major CRISPR breakthroughs are upon us, and we get into where she sees the field going. We discuss the work she’s doing at start-ups and the Innovative Genomics Institute – a research powerhouse that links UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, and UC Davis.

And we talk about Pomona College, our shared alma mater, rejecting our wonderful, brilliant children who will no doubt go on to do amazing things in the world and likely make untold billions that will be donated to other tremendous institutions. JK. Chirp, chirp!

If you want to get up to speed on gene editing’s present and future, you will not find a better discussion.

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