gene editing

noun

variants or genome editing

: the use of biotechnological techniques to make changes to specific DNA sequences in the genome of a living organism

What's more, gene editing is extremely precise. … Just as a skillful editor can delete or add a word to improve a sentence without interfering with the structure of a document, gene editing makes it possible to change or disable a single gene without changing the "meaning" of the rest of the genome.

—Kat McGowan

The era of straightforward genome editing raises ethical questions that will need to be addressed by scientists and society at large.

—Jennifer A. Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier

—often hyphenated when used before another noun

a gene-editing technique called CRISPR

Examples of gene editing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even in soybeans, a notoriously difficult crop to modify, the method achieved efficient gene editing with minimal tissue culture steps. —Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 6 Nov. 2025

This year, a Pennsylvania baby was the first human patient ever to undergo gene editing therapy to treat a life-threatening genetic disorder. —Abby McCloskey, Twin Cities, 29 Oct. 2025

Intellia Therapeutics — The gene editing company rallied almost 6% after Citizens JMP upgraded the stock to market outperform and hiked its price target to $33 on enthusiasm for its hereditary angioedema treatment trial. —Scott Schnipper, CNBC, 6 Oct. 2025

So, the research team behind the new work deleted the equivalent region in a fish (the zebrafish) using the gene editing tool CRISPR. —John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 17 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1990, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for gene editing

• accrediting
• discrediting
• crediting