Ten years ago, scientists developed CRISPR—and since then, the gene-editing tool has been hailed as one of the biggest biological breakthroughs of our time.

For scientists, CRISPR is a key way to study cause and effect between strands of DNA and organisms. Its lab applications have ranged from modifying plants to editing cells for cancer treatment, and CRISPR-based startups have collectively raised billions of dollars.

Much has been made of the technology’s revolutionary potential, but today we’re lifting the veil on what CRISPR looks like in a hands-on setting, via a lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

• In the lab, which is part of the university’s Innovative Genomics Institute—founded by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna—scientists are using a new variant of CRISPR called DART to make changes to the human-gut microbiome.

Big picture: So, what’s the advantage of using CRISPR for gut microbiomes anyway? The hope is that one day, it will allow for more precision than the current approach of prescribing antibiotics for bacterial infections, according to Benjamin Rubin, an investigator at the institute.

Although the initial problem may be fixed by that path, he added, antibiotics can also decimate the microbial community and cause collateral damage, like microbiome imbalances.

“The future we’re hoping to drive towards is not this one where we’re using the sledgehammer of antibiotics—we’d be using the scalpel of CRISPR-Cas9 editing to just fix the problem while leaving the rest of the microbial community intact,” Rubin said.

Go deeper: We spoke with Rubin and another investigator at the institute, Brady Cress, for a detailed view of what it’s like to run experiments with CRISPR. Read the full piece here.—HF

Ford is inking deals left and right in its bid to solve the most pressing challenge facing EV makers around the world: how to build enough batteries.

Last year...Ford laid out the ambitious and expensive route it hopes to take to become a global EV leader: The company plans to spend more than $50 billion on electrification over the next four years as it aims to build 2 million EVs annually by the end of 2026.

• For context, Ford sold 27,140 battery-powered vehicles last year.

Last week...The company announced deals with some of the biggest players in the battery world to help it reach those goals. Ford is also planning to cut as many as 8,000 jobs on the internal-combustion engine side of its business to help fund EV plans, according to reporting from Bloomberg.

Ford’s new battery contracts aim to tackle challenges in both the finished-product and raw-material supply chains, and the company’s moves will likely give it greater security in both. The automaker said it now has 70% of the battery capacity it will need to meet its 2026 production goal.

• Ford is also seeking agreements with suppliers farther upstream to secure critical materials, like lithium and nickel—a step fewer OEMs have taken so far.

Big picture: While these moves to establish battery supply chains are more aggressive than what other EV makers have shared so far, they still may not be enough.

To achieve its 2026 production goal, Ford could need to get its hands on one-fifth of the global battery-grade lithium capacity projected to be available in that year, per Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analysis.

Click here to read the full breakdown of Ford’s new deals.—GD

It’s time for an episode of Emerging Tech Brew Cribs™.

By which we mean: The results are in for last week’s reader poll, which focused on smart-home technologies. We had about 2,700 responses to our question, which broke down like so:

• Most respondents (62%) said they have something in their home that qualifies as smart-home tech.
• The remaining 38% do not.

Based on IDC’s global market-share data for smart-home devices, we can take a guess at what the breakdown of those devices probably looks like.

• First place, with 35% market share: video devices, like smart TVs or streaming sticks.
• Second place, with 21% market share: home-monitoring/security devices.
• Third place, with 10% market share: smart lighting.
• Fourth place, with 35% market share: everything else, from smart thermostats to IoT fridges.

Looking ahead…Matter, the forthcoming smart-home interoperability standard, could further juice adoption of smart-home tech. The standard, which Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung helped create, would enable devices from different companies to play nice with one another, eliminating the need to go all-in on one smart-home brand or another.

But first, Matter needs to actually roll out—its timeline has shifted several times, with the latest estimate being a debut in “fall 2022.”—DM

Stat: By 2050, green hydrogen fuel could make up 32% of aviation energy demand—but only if high-range hydrogen aircraft enter the market by 2035, according to a study from the think-tank Energy Transition Commission.

Quote: “We have to have vehicle manufacturing capacity but also battery manufacturing capacity.”—Jigar Shah, director of the DOE’s loan programs office, to Reuters, on the DOE’s plans to loan $2.5 billion to battery manufacturer Ultium, a joint venture between GM and LG Energy

Read: Synthetic biology startups want to fix the fertilizer problem.

Lights, camera, Brew: Morning Brew is on YouTube! Our shows cover the tech, trends, and companies you care about—and don’t worry, we’re not jargon people. Watch here.

• Rogers Communications, a major Canadian telco, said it’d invest $10 billion Canadian dollars (~$7.8 billion US) in AI and stronger testing, following a massive outage.
• Redwood Materials, the EV battery-recycling startup, said Monday that it would build a $3.5 billion battery-materials production facility outside of Reno, Nevada.
• Tesla is applying for public EV charger funding in the US. If the company wins the $$$, it’d have to enable the chargers built with that money to work with vehicles from other automakers.
• Google has fired the software engineer who claimed the company’s LaMDA AI is sentient.
• Apple’s recent patent applications suggest that its appetite for automotive inroads is strong, even despite reported setbacks with its own vehicle.

Snap poll: Do you think Apple will ever bring a vehicle to market?

Yes

No

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Here’s how the climate tech funding environment is shifting amid a broader VC pullback
• Montreal-based dcbel is one startup helping homeowners use EVs as backup power
• How synthetic biology startups plan to revolutionize fertilizer production