CRISPR’s ancient evolutionary ancestor?

Posted September 30, 2026

Every few weeks a genetic innovation pops up in the news – gene therapy to treat hereditary disease, new high-yield crop varieties, and the promise of individualized cancer treatment, to name a few. These breakthroughs are arriving more frequently due, in part, to a new genetic tool. CRISPR is an element of the immune system of many microbes, allowing them to detect and destroy the DNA of invading viruses. Biologists, however, have harnessed this system to make precise cuts in DNA at predetermined locations and “turn off” a particular gene or insert a new, custom-designed DNA sequence. This tool is so important that its developers, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, received a Nobel Prize for their work. Now, new research uncovers the evolutionary origins of one type of CRISPR system and offers a glimpse into what may be the next generation of gene editing tools.

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