Inside each one of your cells there's a code. That code is your DNA and it plays a role in determining a lot about you like your height, the color

of your hair and how likely you are to get certain diseases.

So what if you could rewrite it?

That question has animated scientists for decades. But until recently, most of the methods they developed to edit DNA in living people were limited, messy, and expensive.

Then in 2012, scientists proposed a new technique that revolutionized gene editing.

It's called CRISPR, and turns out it had been hanging out in nature all along, in bacteria.

Certain species of bacteria have what amounts to a genetic scalpel that can be used to cut DNA.

Scientists found that they could harness that scalpel and use it to modify stretches of DNA in just about any living organism, quickly and cheaply.

Since CRISPR was developed, scientists have found loads of applications for it, from agriculture

to zoology. But the question we started out with, can we edit human DNA safely and ethically? That's been more difficult to answer.

We're now starting to see promising results in human trials that use CRISPR to treat genetic diseases.

But we've also just seen a Chinese scientist get sentenced to three years in prison

after he edited the DNA of twin girls.

So with all that in mind, how does a parent of this technology think about it now?

Jennifer Dowdna helped develop CRISPR back in 2012. She's a

biochemist at the University of Berkeley in California and she is in many ways

the public face of CRISPR.

Today on the show, my interview with Jennifer Doudna, her reflections on the impact of CRISPR, its past, and its future.

I'm Ariel Zimross. This is reset. Okay, so we're here with Jennifer Dowdna.

Jennifer, in many ways, you've become the voice of this technology.

So how do you cope with that?

Just for me personally, you know, it's definitely, it's been a process.

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