By Cold Spring Harbor Laboaratory –
How does science make life better? Here’s one example spanning eons. There’s an adaptive immune system called CRISPR that has existed in bacteria for billions of years. Thanks to fundamental biology research, it is now being used to discover and develop powerful new forms of medicine. Just this year, the first personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy was given to an infant known as Baby KJ.
As a member of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Communications team, I have the great pleasure of being able to attend any of the 30-plus meetings held here each year. This past summer, I helped put together a video of CSHL’s Genome Engineering: CRISPR Frontiers meeting. For this project, I interviewed several conference organizers and presenters. These are world-renowned scientists who came to our campus on Long Island to share their latest research and dream up new ideas with their colleagues. Among them were Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas and Kiran Musunuru, the two physician-scientists behind the world’s first personalized CRISPR treatment.
The video included a few highlights from our chat, but when my colleagues and I listened back to the whole interview, we knew that there was more to share with our community and the broader public. So, that’s what we have here. What led Ahrens-Nicklas and Musunuru to this point? Where do they see their field heading? And what were their impressions of CSHL? We spoke about all this and more. Press play to join the conversation, listen to our guests’ inspiring story, and hear what they had to say about the potential future of science and medicine.
