Stacking up CRISPR against RNA i for therapeutic gene inhibition

Both RNA interference ( RNA i) and clustered regularly‐interspaced short palindromic repeats ( CRISPR ) technologies allow for the sequence‐specific inhibition of gene function and therefore have the potential to be used as therapeutic modalities. By judging the current public and scientific journal interest, it would seem that CRISPR , by enabling clean, durable knockouts, will dominate therapeutic gene inhibition, also at the expense of RNA i. This review aims to look behind prevailing sentiments and to more clearly define the likely scope of the therapeutic applications of the more recently developed CRISPR technology and its relative strengths and weaknesses with regards to RNA i. It is found that largely because of their broadly overlapping delivery constraints, while CRISPR presents formidable competition for DNA ‐directed RNA i strategies, its impact on RNA i therapeutics triggered by synthetic oligonucleotides will likely be more moderate. Instead, RNA i and genome editing, and in particular CRISPR , are poised to jointly promote a further shift toward sequence‐targeted precision medicines.