Book Review: Dr. J. Doudna's "A Crack In Creation"
After reading Walter Isaacson's new book "The Code Breaker" on the history and issues of Dr. Jennifer Doudna's Nobel Award winning work on CRISPR gene editting techniques, I got so interested that I bought another book on the topic. To get the story straight from the horse's moth, so to speak, I bought Dr. Doudna's 2017 book "A Crack In Creation". Written in collaboration with her Ph.D. student Sam Sternberg, there are two main parts to the book:
- The Tool - history and description of CRISPER gene editing;
- The Task - current status and future of CRISPR techniques in gene-edited plants, gene-edited animals, and curing disease in humans.
The Tool - The history is similar to Isacson's, but the description of CRISPR is more detailed, with some very nice diagrams.
The Task - There are separate chapters for:
- gene-edited plants, including gene-editing to make barley resistant to the fungus powdery mildew, gene-editing to make healthier soybeans, gene-editing to eliminate "chip bowning" in potatoes, and a discussion of the comparison between gene-edited crops and GMO's;
- gene-edited animals, including faster maturing salmon, gene-editing to make stronger and more muscular cows, pigs, sheep and goats, and goats with longer hair, thus producing better cashmere;
- a gene-editing cure for sickle cell anemia, a gene-editing cure for beta-thaassemia, the potential gene-editing cure for muscular dystrophy, and the potential use of gene-editing in battling cancer.
Lastly, there is a discussion of ethical issues involved with gene-editing. Overall a very interesting and informative book.
Cheers,
Frank |
