A New Era in Gene Editing, by Caroline Petersen

By Caroline Petersen, The American Spectator, June 9, 2026,

Caroline Peterson is an editorial intern at The American Spectator.

A recent paper promises greater accuracy in gene editing, while ethical considerations of human engineering remain.

A new scientific paper published last week by Dr. Dieter Egli and his genetics research team at Columbia University examines a new gene editing technique that could eventually replace earlier CRISPR-based technologies. The new technique, known as base editing, allows researchers to change a person’s genetic code. As the paper explains, base editing is a process that involves purposely creating nicks and mismatches in a “defective” gene sequence, and then repairing these sequences “in human embryos, allowing specific on-target changes without genotoxic consequences.”