Kevin Davies

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CRISPR is the revolutionary new technology that enables rapid, affordable and precise genome editing. After decades of progress in reading the sequence of DNA, researchers now have unprecedented ability to rewrite the genetic code of any organism. This technology has been celebrated in films, both fiction (Rampage) and non-fiction (Human Nature) and of course with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Supported by a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, Kevin Davies is the author of the definitive book on the CRISPR saga: EDITING HUMANITY: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing, published in 2020 by Pegasus Books. As he did in his earlier books on the Human Genome Project and the consumer genetics revolution, Kevin takes the reader through the remarkable discovery of CRISPR and the key steps that turned it into a programmable "genetic scissors". He shows how this tool is already making headway in the clinic, essentially curing the first patients with sickle-cell disease.

But the technology also raises profound ethical issues about editing human embryos and the specter of designer babies. In November 2018, Kevin had a front-row seat for the bombshell announcement in Hong Kong that a Chinese scientist had created genetically edited babies for the first time, violating a sacred ethical red line. WIth dry British humor and effortless accessibility, Kevin brings to life the heroes of the CRISPR revolution, the rivalries, patent disputes, clinical applications, myriad applications in agriculture and de-extinction, and the ethical controversies. This story has extraordinary implications for medicine, science and humanity, and Davies is the ideal person to narrate it.