Much like a surgical scalpel, the technique allows the genome to be edited by clipping out a specific area of DNA and in some cases replacing it with new instructions The first skirmish was fought last week in what could be a long war over a revolutionary patent on gene-editing technology, with colossal amounts of money at stake. Facing off are the top international experts in the fast-growing field of gene-editing – pitting American scientist Feng Zhang, against the French-American duo of Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna.