The term "CRISPR" was first proposed in 2001 to
describe various clusters of DNA repeats that had been identified
in various bacteria over the previous two decades. Although it has
only been 7 years since the landmark paper
describing Cas9 gene editing was published, the term is now
synonymous with gene editing techniques. The fact that
"CRISPR" is already a term recognized by the general
public is indicative of the impact this innovation has had on the
world already.
The enthusiasm for, and uptake of, CRISPR gene editing research
has been extraordinary and has resulted in huge advancements in
genome editing techniques and tools. In addition to modifications
to the Cas9 system to provide different functionalities, such as
base-editing, researchers have been driven to discover new
RNA-guided DNA targeting systems (e.g. Cas12a). The discovery and
characterization of RNA-guided RNA targeting systems (e.g. Cas13)
has even opened up the possibility of transcriptome
