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

He's famously known to write the biographies of the biggest icons of all time. So he wrote the official biography of Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Steve Jobs, like, you know, just it's insane.

And he wrote a new book about a lady named Jennifer Doudna, who is the founder of Gene Editing. Now she's a female scientist who was told by her school teachers that women don't become scientists, right? Like women's can't be scientists.

She just won the Nobel Prize for her discovery. So amazing. And he just wrote a book about her life. It's called Codebreaker.

And this one has been the most intriguing read. I was not expecting you to do this, but thank you so much for doing the show.

I hope unfolds as if you're part of a drama that's unfolding for all of us in real time.

It's available right now when you hear this episode and I truly believe that you know Walter you're very humble and modest and I that makes me appreciate you even more But you have a really unique ability to be able to really get into people's lives in a really deep and intimate way and Take us on a journey through their life in a very 360 whole way I feel like you're great at telling us about the whole person rather than just the part That's often the most popular part and I I really really value your approach and the way you do that

Everyone Walter Isaacson a new book The Codebreaker available right now go and grab a copy.

I promise you you won't regret it and and to be honest, I do think this is probably the most Challenging challenging one for me in the sense that because it's happening right now It presents so many more interesting conversations and questions in a way that I've never been challenged before So thank you so much for all the work. You've done Walter I remain a fan and supporter and really loved meeting you today and appreciate your energy through the screen I look forward to have dinner having dinner with you. Hopefully one day and again, I appreciate you so much

And I think all of us have to have a feel for this technology, have a feel for our own humanity, for our own children or nephews or nieces or, you know, and say, all right, how do I feel?

It's a pretty simple system. Bacteria have been using it for a billion years and they're not all that smart.

So whenever a virus attacks a bacteria or some of these bacteria, the bacteria take a small mugshot of some of the genetic code of the attacking virus and the bacteria puts it in its own genetic sequence in these clustered, repeated sequences known as CRISPR.

And boom, that was an aha moment in the lab because they said it could be used as a gene editing tool on humans.

And it's a system to edit our DNA, a system to edit our genes.

And then Jennifer Doudna Who I think brought us into the life sciences revolution Because she and her colleagues helped invent CRISPR This tool that can edit our own DNA Which is like, whoa, that's transformative And so I spent a lot of time at her Berkeley lab Learning how to edit human genes

I just finished listening to a really interesting book called the Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson and was all about the fairly recent discoveries of what's called CRISPR, which is basically tool for gene editing.

You know, and actually editing DNA which has tremendous implications for perhaps curing or preventing disease and to be able to get in on just as you said on that cellular level and edit something that creates problems is now happening in biology.

And you've also become the biographer of Jennifer Doudna. Oh my gosh, in a new book called The Codebreaker.

Number one on the Times Best Seller.

But I think even more consequential will be this revolution where molecules have become the new microchips.

So to me, that's like the most consequential revolution of our time. And Jennifer Doudna was a perfect central character.

And it's the first time two women scientists alone have won a Nobel Prize like that.

And you've also become the biographer of Jennifer Doudna. Oh my gosh, in a new book called The Codebreaker.

Number one on the Times Best Seller.

I'm hoping maybe someday he and George Church win the Nobel Prize from Madison.

RNA is the star of my book, along with Jennifer Doudna.

You know, for seven or eight years, I've been gathering string on it because I've been wanting to write about the health sciences.

...tomorrow night I'll interview Walter Isaacson about his new book called The Code Breaker about Jennifer Doudna who just won the Nobel Prize for her...crisper work.

Tomorrow night I'll interview Walter Isaacson about his new book called 'The Code Breaker' about Jennifer Doudna who just won the Nobel Prize for her CRISPR work.

I had written most of the book by about a year and a half ago but was still working on updating it.

And I said, well, a couple things could happen. I'm going to wait for the October 2020 Nobel Prize because if we're lucky, I might go to the CRISPR inventors whoever they pick.

And then as I was writing the epilogue, as you can see from reading the epilogue, I was on the balcony right behind me looking at the diversity of people on Royal Street here in the French Quarter and thinking about what CRISPR could mean.

And that's when the COVID crisis, that's when the shutdown happened. And I decided to delay the book because clearly the notion that an RNA-based virus that was going to be fought by an RNA-based vaccine and detected by RNA-based CRISPR technology.

So I spent the past year and so writing that part of the book, but compared to most things it wasn't a rush. It was a nice easy-going thing.