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Feb 4, 2017

Q&A: The future of genome editing and how it will be regulated

A new technology called CRISPR is making international headlines as a monumental leap in genetic engineering. CRISPR, an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” is a genome-editing technology that allows scientists to alter DNA much more quickly, easily and efficiently than older genetic engineering methods.

CRISPR has broad implications for advances in health care and agriculture and has already been used to create genetically engineered mosquitos designed to help reduce the spread of malaria. In the wake of this major breakthrough, UVA Today asked University of Virginia public policy professor Randall Lutter to explain the impact of this new technology. Now a member of the faculty at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, Lutter is a former deputy commissioner for policy at the Food and Drug Administration, where he had a leadership role in efforts to regulate genetically engineered animals. Read the article.