CRISPR pioneer Erik Sontheimer joins hosts Søren and AJ to discuss how curiosity-driven research revealed a powerful genome editing technology. He also explains how genome editing is progressing from so-called “genome vandalism” towards increasingly precise technologies, including base editing, prime editing, and prime assembly, allowing it to move into the clinic. He later co-founded Intellia Therapeutics and, alongside his academic work, advises other companies working on new approaches to genome editing. So my view of getting involved in a startup was that it was really going to be a lot of work. I think that's a pretty common thing to have happen with founders and companies that survive more than just the first couple of rounds.