The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She thought it was a detective story, and discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Driven by a passion to understand how DNA works, she and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit genes. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles — and moral questions.

After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species. The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier lives.

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