The gene editing world has been revolutionized by the Nobel Prize–winning CRISPR-Cas9 system. Although CRISPR-Cas9 offers advantages over earlier genome editing methods, it isn’t necessarily the last word. Indeed, the past decade has revealed limitations of CRISPR-Cas9, which can’t tackle all the different types of disruptions in the DNA sequence underlying genetic disease. As there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for gene editing, there is enormous scope for biotech companies to mine nature to identify additional CRISPR nucleases and build on CRISPR to develop more flexible platforms for genome editing.
