Caribou Bioscience’s Rachel Haurwitz will chat with us about clipping out cancer at Disrupt NY

CRISPR Cas9 — the framework to program and edit our genetic code — has been hailed as the technological discovery of the century. The Cas9 enzyme acts as a type of genetic scissors, allowing scientists to snip out, edit and replace DNA at certain intervals along the genome, and it holds great promise for improving our food supply and wiping out cancer and other diseases in our lifetime.

But U.S. regulations could be holding us back from making those discoveries — possibly for good reason. CRISPR has a sinister side, with the potential to radically alter humanity. Scientists using this new type of technology could select out certain traits not currently en vogue, wiping out entire swaths of once-inherited characteristics or use it to create designer superhuman babies only the rich could afford.

We’re going to get into all that and more onstage at Disrupt New York in a couple of weeks with the co-founder, president and CEO of Caribou Biosciences, Rachel Haurwitz.

Caribou is one of the leading startups pursuing commercial applications for CRISPR technology and is largely focused on cancer therapies with plans to expand into modifying the body’s microorganisms to treat other diseases.

Haurwitz co-founded the company with her Berkeley colleague and famed CRISPR Cas9 co-inventor Jennifer Doudna. We’re looking forward to chatting with Haurwitz about her work and the possibilities this new technology holds for the future of the human race.

Haurwitz joins a jam-packed agenda full of amazing speakers and guests, which you can check out here.

Pick up tickets to Disrupt NY, which runs May 15 to May 17, right here.

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