Genome engineering is a new and very popular field in health sciences. The development of CRISPR/Cas9 reagents has enabled many molecular biology laboratories to easily make changes in DNA of living cells and organisms. In this course we will survey the literature to understand the historical development of genome engineering, including previous incarnations of the method before CRISPR/Cas9, namely zinc finger nucleases (ZFN) and transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALEN). We will discuss the mechanisms of homology directed repair versus non- homologous end joining. Every week, two primary research papers will be discussed. Students will read these papers in their own study time and in class will present the findings of selected papers. We will also design CRISPR/Cas9 reagents using in silico tools. Off target specificity will be assessed using on line 3 tools. The laboratory component of the course will allow students to construct a CRISPR/Cas9 expression plasmid, use this plasmid to transfect and induce mutations in tissue culture cells and to detect these mutations using different techniques such as T7 endonuclease and/or restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) techniques.