Mammalian-Cell CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing

First demonstrations that CRISPR-Cas9 (see the linked precursor node) works as a genome-editing tool in eukaryotic/human cells, not just in vitro or in bacteria. Two independent groups published within days of each other, both online 2013-01-04: Cong, Ran, Cox, Lin, Barretto, Habib, Hsu, Wu, Jiang, Marraffini et al. (Feng Zhang's lab, Broad Institute/MIT), "Multiplex Genome Engineering Using CRISPR/Cas Systems" (Science 339, 819-823, OpenAlex W2064815984, 15,933 citations); and Mali, Yang, Esvelt, Aach, Guell, DiCarlo, Norville & Church (George Church's lab, Harvard), "RNA-Guided Human Genome Engineering via Cas9" (Science 339, 823-826, OpenAlex W2003171404, 9,503 citations). This is the specific pair of papers at the center of the well-documented CRISPR patent dispute -- the Broad Institute (Zhang) was awarded U.S. patents for eukaryotic-cell CRISPR editing, while UC Berkeley (Doudna/Charpentier, the 2012 in vitro paper) contested them; both institutions hold patents today after years of interference proceedings and litigation. This node does not adjudicate that dispute, only anchors the two papers' shared 2013 date as the real landmark.