CRISPR

[acronym]

Stands for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats," often associated with "CRISPR-associated sequences" or Cas. Component of an adaptive immune system that protects prokaryotes against viruses. Researchers are using modified CRISPR-Cas systems to edit the genomes of organisms. The CRISPR system most commonly used in genome editing is CRISPR-Cas9.