CRISPR & Animals

For thousands of years, humans have been modifying the DNA of our closest furry and feathered friends by breeding animals to produce the most desirable traits. With Crispr, one no longer has to wait generations to make significant genetic changes. This year, researchers 'created' pandemic-proof pigs , whose cells have been edited to remove the molecular lock-and-key mechanism that a variety of respiratory viruses use to infect them, and chickens Crispr’d to make them impervious to a common bird disease caused by the avian leukosis virus.