What Stories Do We Tell About the Critters Involved with CRISPR-Cas? Examining Scientists’ Reflections on Multispecies Relationships in Gene Editing Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scientists researching xenotransplantation and mosquito-focused gene drives are claiming breakthroughs in their fields due to the gene editing technology CRISPR-Cas. When speaking about these applications, scientists narrate them as tools to save human lives. Through this focus on human health, the critters who are edited and intimately involved remain obscured. To bring these creatures into the conversation, I engage with scientists in both fields and provide a space for them to reflect upon their research practices with non-human animals. Through this, scientists’ stories start to deviate from the focus of human health. Their narrations shift as they draw upon a broader range of repertoires incorporating environmental concerns and experiences of affect. My findings build upon feminist science studies by contributing more nuanced narrations of multispecies relationships in gene editing research. I advocate that cultivating space for diverse stories to emerge from researchers working with CRISPR-Cas can produce avenues for response-ability.