More than a decade after its discovery-invention by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, interest in CRISPR continues to remain remarkably high, judging by how many times this word is searched on Google (credit @datadynamix_). To navigate the timeline, see the most important dates below.

The founding paper is published in Science in 2012 and crowned with the award of the Nobel Prize in 2020. The broader scientific community realizes CRISPR’s relevance in 2015, when Science celebrates the technique as the breakthrough of the year. Success in every living organism in which it is tested, along with rapid adoption in laboratories around the world, lead to the iconic cover of Nature: CRISPR Everywhere. The scandal over the birth of CRISPR babies (the first humans edited in China) erupts in late 2018. The following year, the successful clinical trial for sickle cell anemia and thalassemia begin, leading to the first drug approved in 2023/2024, first in Britain, then in the US, and finally in Europe. While waiting for the EU to complete the regulatory process for New Genomic Techniques, the commercial debut in agriculture is still limited to a few niche products in Japan and North America.