In a keynote talk during GEN’s “The State of CRISPR & Genome Editing” virtual summit, originally broadcast on June 11, 2025, Fyodor Urnov, PhD, Director, Technology & Translation, Innovative Genomics Institute and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at University of California Berkeley, spoke about the future of curing disease with CRISPR.
Urnov has been an evangelist for genome editing for more than two decades. Over 15 years at Sangamo Therapeutics, Urnov and colleagues demonstrated the first use of zinc-finger nucleases to edit DNA in human cells and coined the term “genome editing” in 2005. Urnov led collaborative teams to establish at-scale applications of genome editing for human somatic cell genetics and model animal and crop reverse genetics.
In this talk, Urnov shares on how CRISPR was used to develop a cure within six months for baby KJ, an infant diagnosed with an ultra-rare genetic disorder. He described how we move forward to increase the use of CRISPR in the clinic and how to streamline the process by which this can happen.
The entire virtual summit is available to watch free on demand: bit.ly/CRISPR25
The post Fyodor Urnov Discusses CRISPR Cures appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
