A Genetic ‘Chain Saw’ to Target Harmful DNA

Updated Oct. 21, 2016 4:35 p.m. ET About 10 years ago, Rodolphe Barrangou, a transplanted Frenchman with a Ph.D. in genomics from North Carolina State University, chose the obscure subject of his research to put on the license plate of his car: CRISPR. He is still driving the same gray Honda Accord, but the name it brandishes is now one of the hottest areas of medical research. Many people are excited by the potential of the genetic tool Crispr-Cas9 to serve as a kind of molecular scissors to cut and repair malfunctioning DNA. The tool has generated... To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In