Book Review: "The Code Breaker"
I invested a modest sum into the ARK Genomics Revolution ETF (ARKG) and so far so good. The future of gene sequencing and CRISPR in particular looks phenomenal. I saw the author of the new book "The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna" on CNBC and bought it. It is the story of how Dr. Doudna and her colleague Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier discovered the mechanism for CRISPR, first in bacteria and then in human cells, the race for publication, and the eventual Nobel Prize in Chemistry they won last year. Below is an interview by ARK Invest Cathie Wood with Dr. Doudna from last year (before she had won the Nobel Prize) which is very interesting. Below is my book review.
Once I started the 500 page book I became engrossed and read it cover to cover in two days. It tells a sprawling story, beginning with some history of genetics (Darwin and Mendel leading to Watson & Crick's Nobel Prize winning work on the structure and mechanism of DNA, described in the monumental book "The Double Helix"), Doudna's early life in Hawaii and education, leading to her Ph.D. at Harvard on the structure of RNA, her continuing RNA post doctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and her appointment at the University of California at Berkeley as Professor and her work on interference in RNA.This led to an early interest in CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palidromic repeats), followed by a brief stint with Genetech where she was very unhappy, and her return to Berkeley as Director of a Research Lab. A Ph.D. student, Rachel Haurwitz, worked on identifying the structure of CRISPR related proteins in Doudna's lab. Then Haurwitz started a biotech company Caribou Biosciences based on CRISPR techniques with Doudna as scientific advisor. This led to Doudna's collaboration with the French biologist Dr. Charpentier on CRISPR. This led to their groundbreaking work on the mechanism for CRISPR in bacteria, which they extended to human cells, barely beating competing scientists Church and Zhang to publication in January 2013. These scientists all formed biotech companies using CRISPR techniques, Doudna scientific advisor at Caribou, Charpentier at CRISPR Theraputics, and Church and Zhang at Editas Medicine. The book does a good job in expaining the science in not-too-technical terms, and I expanded my knowledge of DNA and RNA, and CRISPR techniques of gene sequencing and editting.
Drs. Doudna and Cherpentier won the glamorous Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in November 2014, which was worth $3 million for each of them. As noted above, they were also awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in October 2020.
After her work on CRISPR, Doudna became involved in public policy strategy surrounding gene editting. The book spends several chapters discussing moral issues: should gene editting be used to cure disease? should gene editting be used to control factors such as height, IQ, etc.
Lastly, Dr. Doudna and her work was instrumental in testing for and developing vaccines for Corona Virus.
Overall, a fascinating and thought provoking book.
youtu.be/dy4hfJR55W4 |
