CRISPR Gene Drives and the Future of Evolution
By Hannah Thomasy,
The Scientist
| 03. 15. 2024
Today, Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Kevin Esvelt is well known for his work on guided evolution technologies—creating systems for evolving biomolecules in the lab and developing techniques to shape the evolutionary trajectories of species in the wild—as well as forging new pathways to safeguard these technologies from misuse.1,2
Esvelt’s entanglement with evolution began early. As a child, he visited the Galápagos, and was captivated by the islands’ stunning array of unique wildlife. “That sparked an interest in the evolution of creatures in the natural world,” said Esvelt. “It got me reading Darwin. And I started wondering—could we make things of comparable magnificence?”
So, when he joined David Liu’s research group at Harvard University for his graduate studies in 2004, he jumped into exploring how to put evolutionary processes to work in the lab. “I love solving problems that I am not actually smart enough to solve. And to do that, you need access to something that is effectively smarter than you, or at least can execute search strategies that you can’t,” said Esvelt. “One of the...
Related Articles
By Gemma Conroy, Nature | 06.27.2024
Image by Robina Weermeijer from Unsplash
A molecular-editing tool that’s small enough to be delivered to the brain shuts down the production of proteins that cause prion diseases, a rare but deadly group of neurodegenerative disorders.
The system — known...
By Staff, AP-NORC | 07.12.2024
Image by Dr. Jayesh Amin from Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by-SA 3.0
Most adults support protecting access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a type of fertility treatment where eggs are combined with sperm outside the body in a...
By Julianna LeMieux, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | 07.10.2024
Image by Rama from Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 FR
Microbiome research has faced a hurdle from the get-go: the inability to edit the microbial genome in vivo. Until now, bacterial genomes had to be modified outside—and reintroduced...
By Katherine Bourzac, Nature | 07.10.2024