Characterization of Research Support of Genome Editing Technologies and Transition to Clinical Trials

Genome editing technologies have become widely used research tools. To assess the rate of growth with respect to federal funding of gene editing projects, we analyzed publicly available data retrieved from the NIH RePORTER and Clinicaltrials.gov databases. We identified 6,111 awards between 1977 and 2023, the majority being extramural, investigator-driven R (noneducational) awards (66.7%). There was an average growth rate of 40% between 2008 and 2022, and the biggest increase in awards was observed between 2017 and 2018 (doubling from 140 to 280). Five administering institutes/centers accounted for more than 60% of awards with the highest number of awards from the National Cancer Institute (20.0%). The majority of clinical trials involving some type of genome editing (75%) started in or after 2020. This analysis illuminates the rapid and widespread growth of gene editing research across disciplines and the eventual launch of clinical trials using gene editing tools.