Health & biology · 2007
CRISPR bacterial immunity
Yogurt bacteria were shown to store virus DNA snippets as a memory to fight phages.
Francisco Mojica recognised CRISPR spacers as viral in 2005, and in 2007 Rodolphe Barrangou and Philippe Horvath proved the adaptive immunity experimentally at Danisco. It supplied the programmable nuclease later turned into a gene editor.