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CRISPR-based gene editing has revolutionized modern biology, but these tools are unable to access the DNA that resides inside mitochondria. Researchers are eager to access and edit this DNA to understand about the energy production and the mutations that can cause incurable mitochondrial diseases.

Because CRISPR can’t help with these problems, researchers have been looking for other ways to precisely edit the mitochrondrial genome. And the past few years have brought some success — if researchers can make editing safe and accurate enough, it could eventually be used to treat, and even cure, these genetic conditions.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Faulty mitochondria cause deadly diseases — fixing them is about to get a lot easier

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