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Important new ways to change the “source code” of living organisms (i.e., to edit genetic information) are gaining momentum, STAT reports, including RNA editing, pioneered by �������� Senior Scientist Joshua Rosenthal. Also described in this article are “community editing,” which enables editing of microbial populations (microbiomes), and “epigenome editing,” targeting the DNA elements that regulate gene expression.

During the first year of , many of the world’s scientists — including Jennifer Doudna, the researcher best known for  in the discovery of the gene editing technology called  — put their work on hold to pitch in studying and . Last year saw the return, if not an avalanche, of at least a steady pour of CRISPR advances, including  in early human trials.

The editing toolkit is also continuing to expand, with the creation of molecules capable of precisely  and innovative new methods  into cells. CRISPR is becoming an umbrella term for a menagerie of molecular systems scientists are harnessing to rewrite the biological source code of the world around us. And that no longer means just changing DNA in a single organism. 

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