Programmable CRISPR-Cas9
2012Jinek, Chylinski, Fonfara, Hauer, Doudna & Charpentier (Science 337, 816-821; published online 2012-06-28/29, print Aug 17 2012; DOI 10.1126/science.1225829) showed that Cas9 could be programmed with a single synthetic guide RNA (fusing the natural crRNA and tracrRNA) to cut any target DNA sequence, and proposed it as a genome-editing tool -- turning the CRISPR-Cas bacterial immune mechanism (see the linked precursor node) into a general-purpose molecular technology. Doudna and Charpentier shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. Feng Zhang and George Church separately published the first demonstrations of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in mammalian/human cells in January 2013 -- a well-documented priority/patent dispute (Broad Institute vs. UC Berkeley) that this node does not adjudicate and is not itself anchored to; flagged here as a real, separate candidate node for a future pass, not folded into this one.
Originators
- Martin Jinek
- Krzysztof Chylinski
- Ines Fonfara
- M. Hauer
- Jennifer A. Doudna
- Emmanuelle Charpentier
Landmark Paper
Checked 2026-09-04 — interim signal only, see docs/BASIC_ROADMAP.md Phase 10
Connections
- is application of CRISPR Gene Editingbasis: reasoned
Definitionally true, not an empirical co-citation claim -- same reasoning as the existing Graphene Isolation -> Graphene edge (Tier 1 SS10): the "CRISPR Gene Editing" innovation and this node describe the same underlying technology at two different grains (commercialization arc vs. founding discovery), so a co-citation check against an identical/near-identical term would be uninformative rather than a real independence test.
- is precursor to TIGR-Tas RNA-Guided DNA-Targeting Systemsbasis: reasoned
TIGR-Tas's own discovery method (Faure et al. 2025) is stated directly: "iterative structural and sequence homology-based mining starting with a guide RNA-interaction domain of Cas9" -- Cas9's structure (this node) was the literal computational starting point for finding TIGR-Tas, not just a shared research area.
- is precursor to Mammalian-Cell CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editingbasis: reasoned
Both 2013 papers explicitly build on and cite the 2012 Jinek/Doudna/Charpentier system, adapting the same Cas9 + single-guide-RNA mechanism from its original bacterial/in vitro demonstration to mammalian cells -- an extension of the same tool to a new context, not an independent invention.