Genetic engineering – the process of purposefully altering an organism’s DNA – has been used to create powerful research tools and model organisms, and has also seen many agricultural applications. However, in order to engineer traits to tackle complex agricultural problems such as stress tolerance, or to realize the promise of gene therapy for treating human diseases, further advances in the field are still needed. Important considerations include the safe and efficient delivery of genetic constructs into cells or organisms, and the establishment of the desired modification in an organism’s genome with the least “off-target” effects.

JoVE’s Overview of Genetic Engineering will present a history of the field, highlighting the discoveries that confirmed DNA as the genetic material and led to the development of tools to modify DNA. Key questions that must be answered in order to improve the process of genetic engineering will then be introduced, along with various tools used by genetic engineers. Finally, we will survey several applications demonstrating the types of experimental questions and strategies in the field today.