Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're

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Today I'm speaking with Jennifer Daudna. Jennifer is a biochemist. She's a professor in the

chemistry in the molecular and cell biology departments at the University of California at Berkeley.

She's also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a researcher in the

molecular biophysics and integrated bio-imaging division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She is one of the world's experts on RNA protein biochemistry and in particular CRISPR biology.

She's the author, along with Samuel Sternberg of the book, a crack in creation, gene editing,

and the unthinkable power to control evolution. Jennifer is credited as one of the inventors of

the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, which is the topic of today's conversation.

We get into all the details and the ethics. Time was short. Jennifer is a rock star scientist,

and I could only schedule about an hour with her, but I will take it. It was great to have her

walk me through the details of CRISPR. And I trust you will leave this podcast as I did knowing

much more about where this technology is at present and where it's all likely to head.

So without further delay, I bring you Jennifer Daudna.

I am here with Jennifer Daudna. Jennifer, thanks for coming on the podcast.

Great to be here, Sam. So you are a co-inventor of CRISPR-Cas9, which is a gene editing

...