gene editing

variants: or genome editing

Definition of gene editing

: the use of biotechnological techniques to make changes to specific DNA sequences in the genome of a living organism Fundamental research into the ways by which bacteria defend themselves against viruses has recently led to the development of powerful new techniques that make it possible to perform gene editing—that is, precisely altering genetic sequences—in living cells, including those of humans, at much higher accuracy and efficiency than ever before possible.— David Baltimore et al. 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 nouna gene-editing technique called CRISPR

Examples of gene editing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Those bedevilling mysteries won’t halt the steady march of CRISPR gene editing into human therapeutics, pest control and more. — Elie Dolgin, Scientific American, "Kill Switch for CRISPR Could Make Gene Editing Safer," 17 Jan. 2020 Unnatural Selection ought to bring the existential promise and peril of Crispr gene editing into people’s homes and dinner table discussions much sooner. — Wired, "Netflix's ‘Unnatural Selection’ Trailer Makes Crispr Personal," 4 Oct. 2019 Several nations, including the UK, Japan, Canada and China, have express bans on gene editing in human embryos that will be used for reproduction. — Alisa Opar, Scientific American, "CRISPR-Edited Babies Arrived, and Regulators Are Still Racing to Catch Up," 27 Jan. 2020 The court ruled that the three defendants had deliberately violated national regulations on biomedical research and medical ethics, and rashly applied gene editing technology to human reproductive medicine. — Dennis Normile, Science | AAAS, "Chinese scientist who produced genetically altered babies sentenced to 3 years in jail," 30 Dec. 2019 Like any technology, the applications of gene editing tech will be shaped by the values of the societies that wield it. — Megan Molteni, WIRED, "Crispr Fans Fight for Egalitarian Access to Gene Editing," 6 June 2018 Recent technological advances, from genomics and gene editing to computational and data science approaches, provide researchers with unprecedented opportunities to work toward this goal. — Nathan Havko, The Conversation, "Crops could face double trouble from insects and a warming climate," 7 Apr. 2020 The camouflage trick, if confirmed, could help scientists expand their gene editing toolkit. — Quanta Magazine, "New Clues About ‘Ambigram’ Viruses With Strange Reversible Genes," 12 Feb. 2020 Feel the chill To find out how this affected mosquito behavior, researchers used the CRISPR gene editing system to knock out the gene encoding Ir21a, using unedited mosquitoes as the control in further experiments. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "We’ve figured out how mosquitos sense our warmth," 7 Feb. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gene editing.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.